III 


t 


/  / 


'.  ^-3.  )0  . 


« 


•M^"^^ 


^X  U  ®b«<»%fa|  ^ 


%: 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


'*4. 


% 


Purchased   by  the   Hamill   Missionary   Fund, 


BV  2063  .L862  1910 
Love,  J.  F.  1859-1928. 
The  unique  message  and  the 
universal  mission  of 


^ 


The  Unique  Message  and  the 
Universal  Mission  of  Christianity 


The  Unique  Message  and 
The  Universal  Mission  of 
Christianity 


./ 


OF  r,7/^ 


■•♦♦- 


Oa 


*     NOV  23  1910 


A'.-. 


?^f\ 


tic 


7nio 


^v 


/ 


SlSkl  SEV 


By     ^ 

JAMES  FRANKLIN  LOVE,  D.D. 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming   H.   Revell    Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  19  lo,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


Preface 

THE  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  show  that 
the  fundamental  and  saving  doctrines  of 
Christianity  are  peculiar  to  the  Christian 
religion,  to  secure  larger  rights  for  the  message 
which  these  doctrines  constitute  and  to  help  fulfill 
the  universal  mission  of  Christianity. 

The  course  of  the  discussion  as  thus  indicated 
involves  questions  belonging  to  the  science  of  com- 
parative religion ;  but  our  aim  being  practical  and 
evangelical,  we  deal  with  what  we  consider  to  be 
the  essence  of  Christianity  more  than  with  the 
common  content  of  Christianity  and  other  great 
religions.  The  title  which  we  have  given  these 
chapters.  The  Unique  Message  and  the  Universal 
Mission  of  Christianity^  suggests  a  contrast  rather 
than  a  comparison  of  Christianity  with  other 
religions,  and  that  is  the  real  nature  of  the  discus- 
sion. The  already  voluminous  and  increasing 
literature  which  may  be  classed  as  studies  in  com- 
parative religion,  covering  as  it  does  all  phases  of 
ethnic  and  Christian  faith,  may  be  necessary  to  a 
broad  intellectual  and  scientific  study  of  religion, 
and  the  emphasis  which  it  puts  on  the  common 
elements  of  religions  may  be  serviceable,  but  it 
ought  to  be  obvious  that  such  discursive  method  is 

6 


6  Preface 

not  necessary  to  the  most  practical  and  profitable 
religious  study. 

In  view  of  the  outline  of  Christian  doctrines 
which  we  give,  the  question  may  arise  as  to  certain 
related  matters  of  Christian  belief.  Let  it  be  said, 
then,  that  we  are  not  inclined  to  ignore  even  minor 
points  of  Christian  doctrine  and  practice.  But  it 
must  be  patent  that  these  correlative  tenets  need 
not  on  all  occasions  be  the  subject  of  defense. 
They  will  indeed  be  taken  care  of  when  the  funda- 
mentals to  which  they  are  related  receive  proper 
respect.  Take  care  of  the  doctrines  and  you  will 
take  care  of  the  duties.  When  a  slight  is  given  a 
Christian  duty  the  cause  usually  lies  back  of  it  and 
is  to  be  attributed  to  a  wrong  attitude  to  religious 
authority  and  a  false  sense  of  the  sacredness  and 
inviolableness  of  the  truth.  A  full  recognition  of 
Christian  essentials  and  a  genuine  reverence  for 
them  will  foster  a  respect  and  jealousy  for  all 
truth  and  all  duties  which  Christianity  prescribes. 
A  proper  safeguarding  of  the  roots  and  great 
trunk  of  the  tree  of  Christian  doctrine  will  secure 
protection  to  every  limb  and  twig  of  minor  but 
intimately  related  matter. 

There  is  a  special  class  of  doctrines  which  one 
must  not  even  seem  to  minify  and  which  some,  per- 
haps, may  expect  to  find  set  forth  among  the 
peculiar  and  fundamental  doctrines ;  such,  namely, 
as  Regeneration,  Justification  by  faith,  etc.  These 
are,  indeed,  distinctive  Christian  doctrines  and  be- 
long to  the  very  essence  of  the  evangelical  gospel ; 


Preface  y 

but  we  conceive  of  them  as  gathered  about  the 
great  doctrines  and  as  implied  in  them.  They 
indicate  the  way  by  which  these  are  made  effec- 
tual and  explain  how  their  benefits  are  procured. 
They  will  always  receive  a  relatively  adequate 
treatment  by  the  man  who  gives  a  Scriptural 
setting  to  the  Atonement,  Kegeneration,  etc. 
While  we  do  not  number  them  in  these  pages,  they 
are  not  only  implied  in  the  discussion  but  are 
emphasized  in  connection  with  these  constitutive 
doctrines.  Some  readers  may  think  that  sin  and 
human  depravity  ought  to  be  included  in  our  out- 
line of  the  distinctive  Christian  doctrines.  The 
Christian  doctrine  of  sin  is  indeed  peculiar  to 
Christianity  and  fundamental  to  evangelical  faith, 
but  we  conceive  of  it  as  having  its  distinctive 
Christian  significance  chiefly  in  the  light  of  and  in 
its  relation  to  the  doctrines  of  the  New  Birth  and 
the  Atonement,  and  for  this  reason  have  given  at- 
tention to  it  in  connection  mth  these  subjects  and 
that  of  futurity  rather  than  in  a  separate  chapter. 
All  the  teachings  of  the  l^ew  Testament  cluster 
about  certain  preeminent  truths  there  taught  and 
corroborated  by  Christian  experience  and  illus- 
trated in  Christian  history.  Christianity  also  com- 
prehends some  things  which  are  common  to  all 
religious  systems  that  represent  any  degree  of 
serious  thought  on  the  great  mysteries  of  life ;  but 
these  common  features  do  not  constitute  the 
essence  of  Christianity.  A  knowledge  of  the 
elements  in  heathenism  which  are  common  to  all 


8  Preface 

religion,  will  doubtless,  as  Jevons  has  s1iot\ti,  be  of 
service  to  the  missionary  by  enabling  him  more 
skillfully  to  insinuate  his  message  into  the  heathen 
mind,  but  it  is  a  radically  unique  message,  the 
solitary  gospel,  he  must  deliver  or  he  should  stay 
at  home.  The  vital  doctrines  which  evangelical 
Christians  insist  upon  as  essential  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  Chiistianity  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  are 
absolutely  unique.  A  study  of  these  in  the  light 
of  the  advanced  knowledge  of  other  religions  and 
the  religious  needs  of  men  will  convince  all  but  the 
hopelessly  blind  that  the  world  needs  the  religion 
which  has  such  truth  and  help  to  offer. 

Men  of  broad  intellectual  horizons  and  large 
observation  are  discovering  the  world's  need  to  be 
the  essential  Christian  truths.  Philosophers  like 
Balfour  are  asking :  "  Where  and  what  are  the 
immutable  doctrines  which,  in  the  opinion  of  theo- 
logians, ought  to  be  handed  down  as  a  sacred 
trust  from  generation  to  generation  ? "  The  late 
Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  faced  this  question. 
Equipped  with  adequate  scholarship  and  favoured 
with  unusual  opportunities  for  study  of  religious 
questions,  he  found,  as  he  tells  us,  that  there  is 
"  a  growing  conviction  that  in  the  religion  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  are  certain  universal  and  per- 
manent elements  which  constitute  the  essence  of 
religion,"  *  and  asks  :  "  What  are  those  fundamental 
and  universal  elements?  Where  do  we  look  for 
them?    This  is  the  question  which  perhaps  more 

^  *'  Universal  Elements  of  Christian  Religion,"  p.  126. 


Preface  o 

than  any  other  has  been  forcing  itself  upon  the 
present  age." '  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  did 
not  answer  these  questions.  He  does,  however, 
assure  us  that  they  are  to  be  found  in  Chris- 
tianity and  that  the  Eastern  religions  stand  in 
need  of  them.  "The  more  attentively  we  study 
them  (the  ethnic  faiths)  estimating  their  fitness 
to  minister  to  the  religious  needs  of  man,  the 
more  obvious  becomes  their  moral  inadequacy." 

The  peculiar  merit  of  any  religion  consists  in  its 
distinctiveness  and  it  is  by  a  contrast  of  their 
peculiar  doctrines  and  not  by  a  comparison  of 
their  common  elements  that  the  value  of  different 
religions  can  be  judged.  It  has  seemed  to  us  that 
it  is  just  here  that  some  writers  on  Christian  essen- 
tials, as  well  as  on  comparative  religion,  have  missed 
the  mark.  They  have  gone  far  afield  in  search  of 
common  and  minor  matters  to  the  neglect  of  the 
great  and  decisive  elements.  Indeed,  in  some  of 
the  popular  treatises  it  is  precisely  the  fundamental 
doctrines  that  have  been  missed  or  ignored  al- 
together. Harnack,  assuming  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion :  "  What  is  Christianity  ?  "  lays  down  as  "  the 
whole  of  the  gospel "  these  three  elements,  viz. : 
"  The  Kingdom  of  God,"  "  God  as  the  Father  and 
the  infinite  value  of  the  human  soul,"  and  "the 
higher  righteousness  as  showing  itself  in  love."* 
This  is  a  wholly  arbitrary  analysis  of  the  gospel  and 
does  not  even  discover  its  remedial  essence  at  all. 


1  a 


Universal  Elements  of  Christian  Religion,"  p.  135, 
What  is  Christianity  ?  "  pp.  154,  155,  174. 


1  o  Preface 

We  have  ventured  to  outline  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  Christianity  which  also  distinguishes 
it  from  other  religions  as,  (1)  A  Self- Verifying 
Revelation  from  God — the  Old  and  New  Testament 
Scriptures  ;  (2)  A  Personally  Revealed  Deity — the 
Incarnation  of  Christ ;  (3)  Deity  Suffering  in  be- 
half of  Humanity — the  Doctrine  of  the  Atone- 
ment ;  (4)  The  Spiritual  Regeneration  of  the  Indi- 
vidual— the  Doctrine  of  the  New  Birth ;  (5)  the 
Moral  Invigoration  of  Man — the  Doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  (6)  Immortality  Demonstrated — the 
Resurrection  of  Christ ;  (7)  A  Rational  Futurity — 
the  Biblical  Doctrine  of  Heaven  and  Hell. 

These  general  statements  are  inclusive,  com- 
prehending a  great  variety  of  related  themes  which 
elucidate,  amplify  and  apply  them.  They  are 
distinctive  doctrines  of  Christianity,  no  other  re- 
ligion in  the  world  possessing  one  of  them.  They 
are  essential  truths  of  Christianity,  the  sacred 
welfare  of  the  soul  being  hazarded  upon  them. 
They  are  dynamic  doctrines,  vitalizing  the  moral 
natures  of  men  wherever  preached.  They  should, 
therefore,  be  preached  by  all  and  proclaimed 
everywhere.  They  are  unique  and  have  a  universal 
mission. 

Although  we  wish,  above  all  things,  to  con- 
centrate attention  upon  these  fundamental  and 
distinctive  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion,  it 
seems  necessary  to  prepare  a  proper  setting  for 
them  by  a  brief  discussion  of  certain  general  ques- 
tions which  arise  in  connection  with  any  consider- 


Preface  1 1 

ation  of  the  nature  and  mission  of  Christianity.  In 
view  of  such  questions  and  because  our  plan  pur- 
posely disencumbers  the  main  discussion  of  such 
matters,  we  give  precedence  in  position,  though 
not  in  importance,  to  Part  I,  which  is  of  the 
nature  of  an  introduction.  It  is  believed  that  the 
matters  treated  and  disposed  of  in  these  intro- 
ductory chapters  will  help  to  show  that  our  claim 
for  the  great  Christian  doctrines  is  valid  and 
insure  a  larger  valuation  of  them  by  the  reader 
and  that  deeper  conviction  of  the  world's  need 
of  them  which  is  the  aim  of  the  whole  discussion 
to  beget. 

If  the  main  proposition  of  the  book  is  true,  it 
must  establish  at  once  the  firmest  basis  for 
Christian  missionary  effort  aud  the  strongest 
motive  to  it.  If  the  things  which  save  men  and 
save  Christianity  are  confined  to  Christianity,  no 
man  can  consistently  be  a  Christian  and  not  be 
missionary.  If,  by  our  distinctive  doctrines  only 
men  can  be  saved  and  the  Christian  religion  can 
persist,  all  liberal  giving,  all  service,  hardship  and 
sacrifice  necessary  to  preserve  these  truths  and 
carry  them  to  every  human  being  in  our  own  and 
all  lands,  and  induce  men  everywhere  to  receive 
them,  are  plainly  justified.  But  these  practical 
values  of  the  study  will  receive  attention  in  the 
closing  chapter  when  we  indulge  the  hope  that  the 
reader  will  be  better  prepared  to  consider  them 
and  the  arguments  which  enforce  these  duties  will 
have  more  weight. 


1 2  Preface 

It  is  fitting  that  I  should  say  that  the  convictions 
which  impelled  this  study  took  possession  of  me 
several  years  ago  in  the  line  of  pastoral  duty,  in- 
struction and  responsibility,  and  that  most  of  the 
material  was  then  accumulated  and  much  that  is 
found  in  these  pages  was  written.  In  the  hope  that 
the  time  would  come  w^hen  the  privileges  of  leisure 
and  research  would  again  be  mine  and  this  study 
might  be  made  more  worthy  and  profitable,  the 
manuscript  has  laid  in  a  drawer  of  my  neglected 
desk,  receiving  an  occasional  emendation  and  addi- 
tion as  the  result  of  new  light  from  some  new 
book  which  I  have  read  en  route  to  and  fro  on 
secretarial  duty  and  occasional  hours  snatched, 
usually  from  the  all  too  few  evenings  spent  at 
home,  for  work  of  this  sort.  As  there  is  little 
prospect  of  leisure  in  which  to  better  fulfill  my 
ambition  and  give  these  thoughts  better  form,  I 
give  them  as  they  are  to  an  indulgent  public. 

J.  F.  L. 

DallaSy  Texas. 


Contents 


PART  I 

I.  Man  a  Religious  Being       .         .         .         •       l? 

II.  A  Supernatural  Revelation  a  Human   Ne- 

cessity   .......     29 

III.  The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      .         .       52 

IV.  Is  One  Religion  for  All  Men  a  Reasonable 

Hope  ?    .         .         .         .         .         .         .7^ 


PART  II 

I.  A  Self-verifying    Revelation  from    God — 

The  Old  and  New  Testament  Scriptures       99 

II.  A  Personally  Revealed   Deity — The  Doc- 

trine of  the  Incarnation  .         .  .128 

III.  Deity  Suffering  on  Behalf  of  Humanity 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement     .         .148 

IV.  The  Moral  Transformation  of  the  Individ- 

ual— The    Doctrine    of  the  New  Birth      165 

V.  The  Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual 

— The  Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit        .     181 

VI.  Immortality     Demonstrated — The     Resur- 

rection of  Jesus      198 

VII.  A  Rational  Futurity — The  Christian  Doc- 

trine OF  Heaven  and  Hell       ,         .         .217 

VIII.  Conclusions        .         .         .         ,         .         .232 


13 


PART  I 


MAN  A  RELIGIOUS  BEING 

HUMAN  nature  will  always  hold  the  race 
to  religion.  Man  is  by  nature  a  religious 
being,  the  religious  animal,  and  his  nature 
will  keep  alive  in  him  an  interest  in  the  religious 
question.  Religion  is  the  one  surviving  aspect  of 
popular  interest  in  every  age.  All  other  questions 
are  issues  of  the  hour.  Religion  is  not  custom ;  it 
is  nature.  It  will  remain  a  vital  question  so  long 
as  nature  and  human  nature  remain  unchanged 
fundamentally.  To  speak  of  a  man's  "getting 
religion  "is  to  misstate  the  case.  Every  man  has 
religion  and  needs  salvation. 

Religiousness  is  a  function  of  the  human  crea- 
ture. To  exercise  himself  religiously, — to  worship, 
pray,  sacrifice,  or  in  some  way  gratify  the  religious 
instinct — is  as  primal  a  law  and  as  spontaneous  an 
act  as  any  of  his  life.  Irreligiousness  is  assumed 
superficiality.  It  is  natural  to  be  religious ;  it  is 
unnatural  to  be  unreligious  or  irreligious.  The 
irreligious  man  is  either  acting  a  part,  a  farce,  or 
he  is  an  abnormal  and  unnatural  specimen  of  his 
species.  Says  Victor  Hugo,  "  Some  men  deny  the 
Infinite ;  some,  too,  deny  the  sun ;  they  are  the 
blind." 

It  is  a  fact  upon  which  travellers  are  as  unani- 

17 


l8     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

mously  agreed  as  upon  any  other  fact  which  they 
observe  in  common,  that  there  is  not  a  race  or 
tribe  of  men  among  which  this  characteristic  does 
not  prevail.  Low  types  have  low  forms  of  religion, 
but  all  men  everywhere  exercise  themselves  relig- 
iously. That  is  to  say,  the  religious  function  is 
found  to  characterize  all,  though  a  more  perfect  de- 
velopment is  witnessed  in  some  than  in  others.  There 
is  in  all  an  instinct,  a  craving,  a  sense  of  need  and  de- 
pendence, responsive  sensibilities  to  spiritual  reali- 
ties and  influences  about  and  above  them.  All  may 
not  understand  the  mystery  of  these,  nor  rightly  in- 
terpret them,  but  all  are  conscious  of  them  and 
show  plainly  that  they  possess  religious  capacity. 

Laughter  and  crying  do  not  signify  more  normal, 
common  and  fundamental  facts  of  child-nature 
than  the  crudest  worship  does  of  man's  religious 
nature.  Religion,  like  the  power  of  speech,  is  a 
birthright  into  which  every  normal  human  being 
comes  in  due  time  though  it  be  by  a  long  period  of 
lisping  and  stammering.  The  child  takes  to  relig- 
ion as  naturally  as  to  talking.  It  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  what  religious  forms  his  nature  will  express 
itself  in  as  it  is  what  particular  language  or  dialect 
he  will  speak,  and  both  are  matters  of  environment, 
example,  and  instruction,  largely.  With  all  his 
seeming  irreverence,  non-conformity  and  willful 
iconoclasm,  Theodore  Parker  admitted  the  religious 
sentiment  to  be  "  The  strongest  and  deepest  ele- 
ment in  human  nature."  This  is  similar  to  Pro- 
fessor risk's  pronouncement :  "  That  inward  con  vie- 


Man  a  Religious  Being  ig 

tion,  the  craving  for  final  cause,  the  theistio 
assumption,  is  itself  one  of  the  master-facts  of  the 
universe."  Much  to  the  same  effect  is  Carlyle's 
familiar  saying,  that  "Man's  unhappiness  .  .  . 
comes  from  his  greatness  ;  is  because  there  is  an 
infinite  in  him  which  with  all  his  cunning,  he 
cannot  bury  under  the  finite."  And  this  reminds  one 
of  a  fine  passage  in  George  Romanes'  "  Thoughts 
On  Religion,"  in  which  this  intellectual  prodigal, 
after  his  return  to  his  Father's  house,  uses  this 
common  instinct  as  an  argument  for  the  reality  of 
superhuman  spiritual  verities.  He  says,  "  The 
religious  instincts  are  unquestionably  very  general, 
very  persistent  and  very  powerful.  .  .  .  Here, 
I  think,  we  have  an  argument  of  legitimate 
force  .  .  .  because,  if  the  religious  instincts  of 
the  human  race  point  to  no  reality  as  their  object, 
they  are  out  of  analogy  with  all  other  endo^vment. 
Elsewhere  in  the  animal  kingdom,  we  never  meet 
with  such  a  thing  as  an  instinct  pointing  aim- 
lessly. ...  In  a  word,  if  animal  instincts 
generally,  like  organic  structure  and  inorganic 
systems,  are  held  to  betoken  purpose,  the  religious 
nature  of  man  would  stand  out  as  an  anomaly  in 
the  general  scheme  of  things  if  it  alone  were 
purposeless,  ...  a  contradiction  which  can 
only  be  overcome  by  supposing  either  that  na- 
ture conceals  God,  while  man  reveals  Him,  or 
that  nature  reveals  God  while  man  misrepresents 
Him."  *     Dr.    Fair  bairn    afiirms    the    universality 

1  "  Thoughts  on  Eeligion,"  pp.  182,  183. 


20     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

of  this  instinct  and  points  out  a  sociological  ap- 
plication of  it  in  a  passage  too  striking  to  be 
omitted  here.  "  Mark  ! — Man  is  a  religious  being. 
Look  to  the  north  and  south,  the  east  and  west 
and  what  do  you  see  ?  religions.  Wherever  you 
turn — man  ;  wherever  man — religion.  '  No,'  says 
some  very  wise  person,  '  not  at  all ;  there  are  low 
tribes,  far  down  in  the  scale,  found  without  any 
religious  customs,  without  any  religious  ideas ; 
religion  is  not  universal.'  Well,  I  will  not  discuss 
the  matter,  but  will  only  say  this  :  The  greatest 
ethnographers, — that  is  the  men  who  have  most 
extensively  studied  the  customs,  the  manners,  the 
beliefs  of  men, — are  on  my  side  affirming  the 
opposite.  But  I  do  not  stand  on  that.  If  you 
insist  on  it,  let  us  grant  that  there  are  low  tribes 
without  religion.  What  then  ?  Why  this  :  to  be 
without  it  is  to  have  fallen  into  savagery ;  to  be 
without  it  is  to  have  the  sure  indelible  mark  of  lost 
manhood  and  utter  barbarism.  A  great  and  dis- 
tinguished thinker,  Schelling,  wrote  a  great  book 
which  started  from  this  principle  : — Man  in  the 
very  act  of  founding  society  realizes  religion ; 
without  religion  there  is  no  society ;  at  its  root, 
in  all  its  customs,  throughout  all  its  laws,  religion 
runs  ;  and  society  is  only  where  religion  has  begun 
to  be.  And  that  is  a  simple  certain  fact.  No  man 
who  knows  ethnography,  sociology,  or  whatever 
he  may  call  this  science  which  deals  with  the 
origins  of  institutions  and  civilization,  will  ques- 
tion it  for  a  moment.     Society  and  religion,  as  it 


Man  a  Religious  Being  21 

were,  begin  to  be  together.  Man  cannot  be  a 
social  and  therefore  a  civilized  being  until  he  has 
religion."  * 

The  presence  everywhere  of  an  inner  compulsion 
to  worship  is  not  only  now  a  universal  fact  of 
human  life,  but  it  has  ever  been.  There  is  no 
vanished  race  or  civilization  or  tribe  of  men  of 
which  we  have  historical  knowledge  that  did  not 
exhibit  this  intuition  and,  under  the  religious  im- 
pulse, observe  some  sort  of  religious  rites.  The 
chief  monuments  ancient  generations  have  left  us 
of  themselves  and  the  social  order  as  they  framed 
it,  and  amidst  which  they  lived,  are  symbols  of  their 
religious  beliefs.  This  is,  more  than  any  other,  the 
significance  of  the  excavated  relics  of  pottery, 
sculpture,  and  architecture.  These  sundry  emblems 
of  a  common  instinct  for  religion  constitute  the 
principal  monuments  they  have  left  us.  We  know 
more  about  their  religion  than  about  any  common 
custom  they  observed.  By  these  signs  of  their 
religions  they  have  their  earthly  immortality. 
They  wrote  an  indelible  religious  history.  This 
history  seems  to  be  kept  for  the  eternal  assizes 
when  "the  books  shall  be  opened."  What  the 
fashions,  the  political  creeds  and  partizanships 
among  them  were  we  may  not  know.  All  vestiges 
of  these  may  have  faded  long  ago,  but  all  have  left 
some  symbol  or  memorial  of  their  rehgion.     There 

*  "  Eeligion  in  History  and  Modern  Life,"  by  A.  M.  Fairbairn, 
pp.  71-72.  See  also  a  fine  passage,  too  long  to  qnote  here,  in  his 
*•  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  pp.  186-200. 


22     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

has  been  found  no  race  which,  judged  by  the 
memorials  it  has  left,  did  not  have  this  instinct. 
And  no  other  animal,  past  or  present,  does  have  it. 
The  story  which  the  servants  of  our  childhood  told 
us,  that  cows  and  sheep  reverently  and  simultane- 
ously got  on  their  knees  on  a  certain  night  in  the 
year,  we  have  long  since  found  to  be  a  fal3le.  The 
physical  evolutionist  may  yet  be  called  upon  to 
explain  why  no  thoroughbred  animal  has  even  yet 
been  found  to  worship  and  that  the  lowest  and 
most  ancient  man  known  to  us  did. 

E"or  is  there  probability  of  a  change.  Man  not 
only  has  been  and  is,  but  will  remain  religious.  As 
Sabatier  says  he  is  "incurably  religious."  He  is 
no  prophet,  but  rather  a  poor  specimen  of  the 
intellectualism  he  preaches,  who  forecasts  the 
supersedure  of  religion  by  culture.  Culture  may 
cause  a  man  to  change  his  views  of  religion,  but 
cannot  change  his  instinct  for  it.  Men  may  out- 
grow their  ignorance,  but  not  their  natures.  Relig- 
iousness is  constitutional  and,  therefore,  ineradicable. 
The  currents  of  human  opinion  are  on  the  surface 
and,  though  they  may  change,  do  not  affect  the 
deep  tides  of  nature.  Knowledge  will  illuminate 
religion  but  will  never  eliminate  it.  There  are 
what  Tyndall  calls  "Unquenchable  claims  of  his 
moral  and  emotional  nature  which  the  understand- 
ing can   never  satisfy."  ^ 

The  imperious  and  inexorable  laws  of  nature  will 
hold  the  race  to  religion  until  at  last  an  enlightened 

1  "  Fragments  of  Scieuce,"  p.  213. 


Man  a  Religious  Being  23 

judgment  and  a  famishing  nature  shall  discover 
which  of  the  many  systems  is  best.  Indeed,  is  it 
not  a  fact,  that  true  education  and  true  religion 
have  much  the  same  end  in  view,  namely,  to  create 
a  passion  for  truth  and  a  genuine  refinement  of 
spirit?  Both  desire  to  see  the  human  mind  and 
spirit  freed  from  the  fetters  of  its  ignorance  and 
false  knowledge,  and  society  of  cruelty  and  coarse- 
ness. When  both  are  genuine,  culture  and  religion 
mutually  help  each  other.  The  high  end  of  educa- 
tion is  not  to  give  men  strong  minds,  but  correct 
discernment  and  refined,  sensitive  souls;  and  this 
last  is  of  the  nature  of  religion.  It  renders  the 
faculties  responsive  to  the  claims  of  truth,  justice, 
mercy,  which  involve  the  laws  of  God,  the 
rights  of  human  life  and  neighbourly  duties.  The 
man  who  is  truly  Christian,  is  the  friend  of  culture, 
and  the  truly  cultured  is  the  friend  of  Christianity. 
l!^either  could  fulfill  his  aims  for  human  society 
without  the  other.  Nothing  is  so  boorish  and 
vulgar  and,  therefore,  further  short  of  culture,  than 
infidelity. 

The  fact  is,  the  advance  of  education  and  the  in- 
crease of  culture  gives  new  vitality  and  brighter 
prospect  to  true  religion.  Particular  beliefs  and 
practices  are  modified  or  abandoned  in  the  light  of 
better  knowledge,  but  religion  itself  is  vitalized  and 
given  new  power  and  effectiveness.  The  religious 
reformation  and  the  renaissance  of  culture  always 
appear  together  and  often  the  historian  is  puzzled 
to  know  which  of  the  two  is  the  forerunner.    The 


24     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

higher  culture  and  the  more  vital  religion,  which 
jointly  burst  the  bands  of  the  old  order,  have 
often  been  embodied  in  the  same  person.  In  such 
times  religious  beliefs  get  more  clearly  defined, 
grow  in  certainty,  are  held  with  more  unwaver- 
ing consistency  and  conviction,  the  defense  of  them 
becomes  more  religious  and  their  use  more  practical 
and  beneficial.  Interest  in  religious  questions  is 
keenest  where  true  culture  is  highest.  Enlighten- 
ment is  the  enemy  of  false  religion  and  the 
false  in  religion  only.  With  advance  of  modern 
science  and  education,  for  instance,  belief  in  God 
has  become  more  rational,  the  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality more  reasonable.  Kampant  criticism  of 
the  doctrine  of  human  depravity  and  divine  retri- 
bution are  struck  dumb  before  the  verdict  of  physical 
science  concerning  heredity  and  penalty  operative 
in  natural  laws. 

All  this  is  confirmatory  of  the  proposition  that 
man  is  religious  and  will  never  abandon  religion. 
"There  are  no  symptoms  that  man  is  losing  his 
interest  in  religion  in  consequence  of  his  increasing 
knowledge," '  because  knowledge  does  not  change 
nature.  There  is  a  foundation  for  religion  deep  in 
man's  nature  and  the  depths  of  all  things  hold  their 
course.  Human  opinion  may  be  ruffled  and  human 
thought  may,  for  a  time,  seem  to  run  counter  to 
religion,  but  the  deep  gulf -stream  of  religious  senti- 
ment flows  on  forever.  The  fair,  bright  day,  the 
prophetic  day  of  the  scholar,  will  come,  and  with 

•'Ten  Great  Religions,"  by  J.  F.  Clarke,  p.  490. 


Man  a  Religious  Being  25 

its  light  and  calm  there  will  be  change,  but  it  will 
be  the  change  of  the  eddies  and  waves  on  the  sur- 
face lost  in  the  deep  waters  of  religious  reality  now 
that  the  storm  has  passed,  and  henceforth  to  flow 
with  the  steady  tide,  which  had  its  origin  in  God  and 
which  keeps  unalterably  the  course  which  He  deter- 
mined. Education  and  culture  cannot  destroy 
man's  religious  nature,  and  they  offer  no  real  sub- 
stitute for  religion.  They  have  nothing  to  satisfy 
the  unquenchable  thirst,  the  imperious  demands  of 
man's  moral  and  spiritual  nature.  With  the  advance 
of  science  and  knowledge  there  will  be  a  change 
of  food,  but  man  will  still  require  to  be  fed,  his 
soul  not  less  than  his  body.  The  constitutional 
hungers,  thirsts,  aspirations  of  men  are  the  same  to- 
day as  when  the  race  began  its  long  journey  which 
leads  up  an  interminable  ascent.  Among  these 
constitutional  cravings  there  is  none  more  universal, 
constant,  and  of  which  he  has  a  deeper  conscious- 
ness than  that  for  the  objects  which  religion  alone 
holds  out  to  him,  God,  immortality,  and  escape  from 
the  consequences  of  wrong-doing.  Amidst  all  the 
fluctuations  and  change,  "  Abideth  faith,  hope, 
love."  No  physical  or  mental  want  is  more  inexor- 
able, none  gives  more  pleasure  by  its  gratification, 
none  causes  more  distress  when  gratification  is  de- 
nied or  disappointed,  than  man's  religious  desires. 
There  is  nothing  in  knowledge,  power,  possession 
or  position  to  sate  this  hunger. 

Indeed  the  unsatisfaction  which  great  spirits  find 
in  other  things  throws  light  on  this  question  of 


26     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

man's  need  of  religion.  Perhaps  the  false  religions 
represent  the  efforts  of  great  men  to  find  satisfac- 
tion in  religious  inquiry  when  all  else  had  failed  to 
satiate  their  conscious  cravings.  Yery  certain  it  is, 
that  some  to  whom  the  world  has  allowed  most  of 
its  preferments  have  found  that  they  did  not 
satisfy.  Goethe  said  to  his  friend  Eckermann,  "  I 
have  ever  been  esteemed  one  of  Fortune's  chiefest 
favourites  ;  nor  can  I  complain  of  the  course  my  life 
has  taken.  Yet,  truly,  there  has  been  nothing  but 
toil  and  care  ;  and  in  my  seventy-fifth  year  I  may 
say  that  I  have  never  had  four  weeks  of  genuine 
pleasure.  The  stone  was  ever  to  be  rolled 
upward."  There  you  have  the  tragedy  and  pathos 
of  a  great  man  starving  a  nature  naturally  religious. 
Diocletian  found  more  pleasure  in  a  vegetable 
garden  than  on  a  throne  and  voluntarily  sur- 
rendered the  latter  for  the  first,  as  Charles  the  Fifth 
surrendered  more  diadems  than  any  other  human 
brow  ever  wore  for  a  cell  in  a  lonely  monastery. 
It  is  even  as  Tennyson  says,  "  Fame  is  half  disfame," 
and  all  too  poor  a  thing  to  satisfy  a  human  soul  with 
infinite  spiritual  cravings. 

George  Eomanes  bears  testimony  from  another 
quarter,  but  equally  pertinent.  He  says,  "  I  know 
from  experience  the  intellectual  distractions  of  sci- 
entific research,  philosophical  speculation,  and  ar- 
tistic pleasures  ;  but  am  also  well  aware  that  even 
when  all  are  taken  together  and  well  sweetened  to 
taste,  in  respect  of  consequent  reputation,  means, 
social  position,  etc.,  the  whole  concoction  is  but  as 


Man  a  Religious  Being  27 

high  confectionery  to  a  starving  man.  ...  It 
is  by  God  decreed  that  fame  shall  not  satisfy  high- 
est need.  It  has  been  my  lot  to  know  not  a  few  of 
the  famous  men  of  our  generation,  and  I  have 
always  observed  it  is  profoundly  true  ...  as 
soon  as  one  end  of  distinction  is  reached,  another  is 
pined  for.  There  is  no  finality  to  rest  in,  while 
disease  and  death  are  always  standing  in  the  back- 
ground.    .     .     . 

"  This  whole  negative  side  of  the  subject  proves  a 
vacuum  in  the  soul  of  man  which  nothing  can  fill 
save  faith  and  God."  ' 

That  man  must  have  religion  is  proven  by  the 
very  patronage  which  he  gives  false  religions  and 
his  susceptibility  to  the  errors  and  fallacies  which 
often  attach  to  true  religion.  As  the  appetites  of 
children  lead  them  to  eat  unripe  fruit  and  other  un- 
wholesome food  placed  within  their  reach,  so  races 
in  their  childhood  seek  to  satisfy  their  spiritual 
wants  upon  imperfect  and  false  religions  and 
immature  souls  in  Christian  lands  imbibe  perni- 
cious heresies.  Impostors  take  advantage  of  un- 
sound judgment  and  natural  craving.  So  many 
religions  and  so  many  varieties  of  religious  belief 
could  not  flourish  in  the  world  if  the  market  were 
not  made  active  by  the  religious  needs  of  men.  It 
is  this  soul-hunger  that  makes  trade  for  the  relis'- 
ious  fakir.  With  advancing  knowledge  the  demand 
for  religion  will  not  be  less,  because  human  nature 
will   remain   the  same,  but  in   the  light  of  that 

^  Life  of  Romanes,  by  his  wife,  pp.  151-152. 


28     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

knowledge  man  will  demand  the  best  article 
obtainable.  He  will  seek  a  more  rational  and 
wholesome  gratification  of  his  religious  nature  as 
he  does  of  the  physical  in  requiring  better  food, 
bodily  comforts,  and  social  pleasures.  The  Afri- 
can's religion,  like  his  wardrobe  and  his  music,  and 
the  Chinaman's  religion,  like  his  shoes  and  pigtail, 
will  appear  ridiculous  and  grotesque  to  the  man 
of  real  culture  and  refinement.  The  change  will  not 
be  from  fetishism  and  ancestor-worship  to  non- 
religion,  but  from  these  lower  types  to  the  best  re- 
ligion and  the  best  in  religion,  to  Christianity  and 
the  finest  type  of  the  Christian.  "  The  jury  of  the 
world  will  ultimately  demand  to  know  the  truth 
and  the  whole  truth."  ' 

^  Byron  Jevons,  "  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Comparative 
Religion,"  p.  21. 


n 

A  SUPERNATURAL   REVELATION  A 
HUMAN  NECESSITY 

FINDING  man  to  be  a  religious  being,  we 
also  find  that  his  religious  nature,  like  his 
physical  and  mental,  must  be  trained.  Left 
to  spontaneous  expression,  nothing  in  his  nature 
leads  to  such  monstrous  excesses  as  his  proneness 
for  religion.  The  light  which  is  in  him  becomes 
his  greatest  darkness.  A  divine  revelation  is  as 
necessary  to  the  soul  as  light  is  to  the  eye.  With- 
out it  man  gropes  in  the  darkness,  feeling  after 
God,  if  haply  he  may  find  Him — a  blind  soul  seek- 
ing a  lost  Deity.  There  are  other  feeble  sources  of 
moral  light  as  there  are  stars  in  the  night ;  but  like 
the  stars,  they  do  not  suffice  in  strength  of  iUumi- 
nation.  An  impulse  so  powerful  must  receive  in- 
struction and  guidance. 

1.  External  nature  gives  some  hints  concerning 
things  which  afi'ect  the  soul's  high  interests.  The 
observant  and  contemplative  mind  is  often  re- 
ligiously affected  by  natural  objects  and  forces ; 
but  this  is  because  it  finds  an  analogy  rather  than  a 
real  revelation  of  moral  truth  in  nature,  and  is  due 
to  religious  prepossessions.  There  has  been  a  read- 
ing into  nature  before  there  has  been  a  reading 
out.     And  while  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  is 

29 


30     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

in  nature,  its  wide-spreading  trees,  great  waters, 
mountains  and  luminous  worlds,  that  which  some- 
times arouses  dominant  religious  emotions,  it  does 
not  always  direct  them  properly,  and  is  not  a  re- 
liable moral  guide  as  it  is  not  a  sufficient  one. 

Two  classes  of  minds  have  made  much  of  nature 
as  a  teacher,  namely,  the  scientific  and  the  poetic. 
Bacon  said :  "  Question  nature  and  she  will  answer 
you  truly."  To  him  nature  had  voices  because  he 
had  a  scientist's  ears.  He  could  read  "  in  nature's 
open  book  "  because  his  training  had  given  him  a 
discerning  vision.  It  was  a  modern  scientist  who 
looked  up  from  his  laboratory  and  microscope  and 
read  plainly  a  marvellous  revelation  of  "  Natural 
Law  in  the  Spiritual  World."  This  he  was  able  to 
do  because  he  was  both  a  scientist  and  a  Christian ; 
because  he  had  carried  to  the  studv  of  nature  fine 
spiritual  sensibilities  and  a  mind  whose  every  fac- 
ulty was  so  trained  as  to  discern  natural  law  and 
the  variations  of  natural  phenomena.  The  Chris- 
tian went  to  the  laboratory  to  study  science  in  the 
light  of  religion,  and  the  scientist  came  into  the 
study  to  investigate  religion  in  the  light  of  science, 
lie  found  striking  analogies.  But  Drummond  was 
frank  enough  to  say  of  the  unchristian  scientist, 
"  Men  could  find  out  the  order  in  which  the  world 
was  made ;  but  what  they  could  not  find  out  was 
that  Grod  had  made  it.  To  this  day  they  have  not 
found  out." ' 

The  poets  have  made  much  of  nature.     It  was  an 

1  "  Life  of  Drummoud,"  by  Geo.  A.  Smith,  p.  262. 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  31 

ancient  poet  who  heard  ringing  down  the  corridors 
of  centuries  the  rhythmic  melody,  the  first  nature- 
pean  wherein, 

"The  morning  stars  sang  together, 
And  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy ;  " 

{Job  xxxviii.  7. ) 

and  another  who  wrote  in  the  poetry  of  his  own 
tongue,  ^ 


i( 


The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God, 
And  the  firmament  showeth  His  handiwork. 
Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech 
And  night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge." 

(Fsa.  xix.  1-2.) 


And  another  said : 


"His  glory  covered  the  heavens, 
And  the  earth  was  full  of  His  praise 
And  His  brightness  was  as  the  light. 

"The  deep  uttered  its  voice 
And  lifted  up  its  hands  on  high. 
And  the  sun  and  the  moon  stood  still  in  their 

habitation 
At  the  light  of  Thine  arrows  as  they  went, 
And  at  the  shining  of  Thy  glittering  spear." 

(^Hab.  Hi.   3,  4,  10  and  11. ) 

So  all  the  innumerable  company  of  poets  have 
seen  and  heard  what  nature  withholds  from  grosser 
mortals.  Young  saw  such  beauty  in  nature's  face 
that  he  exclaimed :  "  JSTature  is  the  art  of  God !  " 
and  Addison : 


32     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 


"  The  stars  are  forever  singing  as  they  shine 
The  hand  that  made  us  is  divine," 


and 


"The  spacious  firmament  on  high 
With  all  the  blue  ethereal  sky 
And  spangled  heavens  a  smiling  frame 
Their  great  original  proclaim. ' ' 

While  Shakespeare  declares  that  one  finds : 

"Tongues  in  trees,  books  in  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  the  stones,  and  good  in  everything." 

And  Bailey  asks : 

"  What  are  ye  orbs? 
The  words  of  God  ? 
The  scripture  of  the  sky?" 

Mrs.  Browning  declares  in  bold  rhetoric  that  there 
is 

"  No  hum  of  lily — muffled  bee  but  finds 
Some  coupling  music  with  the  whirling  stars ; 
Earth's  crammed  with  heaven; 
Every  common  bush  afire  with  God. ' ' 

But  these  were  all  scholars  and  poets.  While  an 
Emerson  may  have  the  leisure  and  the  learning  for 
nature-study  until, 

*'  In  the  mud  and  scum  of  things 
Something  always,  always  sings," 

the  message  of  nature  is  far  too  limited  in  its 
religious  content,   its  speech  too  difficult  and  its 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  33 

voice  too  soft  and  low  to  arrest  the  attention  and 
meet  the  needs  of  the  common  man  in  the  clamour 
of  the  world,  the  distractions  of  sin  and  the  pre- 
engagements  of  this  stressful  life,  and  insufficient 
to  meet  all  the  needs  of  any  man,  whatever  be  his 
culture,  his  environment  and  his  wisdom  concerning 
nature's  secrets.  The  best  and  the  wisest  may 
find  in  nature  plain  corroborations  of  revealed 
religion  the  tenets  of  which  they  have  learned  in 
the  written  Eevelation ;  but  they  had  not  seen  so 
much  in  nature  or  interpreted  it  so  correctly  but 
for  the  key  which  Eevelation  gave  them  with  which 
to  unlock  God's  book  of  nature. 

Dr.  Strong  has  made  this  true  observation  in  his 
essay  on  Wordsworth :  "  He  never  would  have 
been  able  to  find  in  nature  so  much  to  awe  and 
console ;  he  never  would  have  seen  in  her  so 
much  of  truth  and  love  if  he  had  not  carried 
into  his  contemplations  what  he  had  learned 
from  the  gospel  of  Christ.  It  is  the  old  story  of 
Plato's  cave.  He  who  has  once  explored  the  cave 
with  a  torch  can  afterwards  make  his  way  through 
the  dark.  Many  an  ethical  philosopher  like 
Spencer  imagines  his  conclusions  about  man's  being 
to  be  the  result  of  his  own  insight,  when  in  fact 
they  are  unconscious  plagiarisms  from  Christian 
revelations.  .  .  .  The  interpretation  of  nature, 
as  well  as  the  interpretation  of  man,  is  an  exclu- 
sively Christian  achievement."  '  Eevelation,  which 
Wordsworth  recognized  as   "  His  pure  word  by 

^  '*  The  Great  Poets  and  Their  Theology,"  pp.  368-369. 


34     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

miracle  revealed "  furnished  him  a  clue  to  nature. 
Acquainted  with  the  Scriptures  he  could  say  in  his 
"  Intimations  of  Immortality," 

'  *  To  me  the  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears." 

Without  that  clue  men  have  neither  seen  the 
natural  beauty  nor  high  religious  truth  in  nature. 
President  S.  C.  Mitchell  has  said,  "  The  Alps  were 
discovered  yesterday.  Livy,  though  born  at  their 
foot  and  writing  of  Hannibal's  heroic  passage  of 
them,  betrays  no  kind  of  appreciation  of  their 
majesty  and  beauty."  He  could  not  see  the 
majesty  and  beauty  in  nature  because  he  lacked 
the  favourable  view-point.  Jesus  had  not  taken 
him  into  the  fields  and  taught  him  the  parable  of 
the  lily  which  surpassed  Solomon  in  his  glory.  His 
instruction  to  "  Consider  the  lilies  "  was  the  world's 
introduction  to  the  nature-sciences.  That  parable 
has  not  only  done  more  for  botanical  science  than 
any  lecture  ever  delivered  in  a  laboratory,  but 
more  for  art,  pictorial  and  literary,  than  all  the 
masters.  Jesus  has  done  equally  well  by  all  natural 
science  and  pure  aesthetics.  The  artist-eye  of  the 
Greek  was  keen  to  discern  the  voluptuous  and  the 
muscular,  but  blind  to  the  romance  of  the  humble 
lives  and  the  fresh  purity  and  rich  garniture  of 
nature.  Here  was  a  challenge  to  His  humanity  and 
His  genius  but  no  man  was  found  with  the  skill  to 
compound  the  colours,  though  in  doing  so  he  might 
have  found  a  moral  hygienic  for  the  heated  imag- 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  35 

ination  of  a  sensual  age  and  diverted  a  race  jaded 
with  carnality  to  the  virtues  of  the  needy  poor  and 
the  lavish  beauty  of  external  nature.  JSTot  until  the 
Son  of  God  slept  in  a  manger,  chose  the  poor  to  be 
His  companions  and  beneficiaries,  and  made  the  lily 
and  the  vine  to  preach  wisdom,  did  artists  find  their 
subjects  in  the  huts  of  the  humble,  the  lake  and  the 
mountains,  and  the  poets  find  nature  to  be  "  the 
living  garment  of  the  Deity  "  '  and  discern  behind 
it  the  "  image  of  His  face."  Jesus  opened  man's 
eyes,  and,"  behold  !  all  things  were  new.  Keligion 
furnished  a  key  to  nature  and  not  nature  to  re- 
ligion. 

Moreover,  nature  is  a  book  of  law,  while  man 
needs  a  gospel.  E'ature's  corroborations  are  corrob- 
orations of  law;  gospel  is  found  nowhere  outside 
of  the  inspired  Word.  The  scientist  may  learn  and 
teach  ^Hhe  eternal  power  and  Godhead,"  these 
"  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are  made  " 
(Rom.  i.  20),  but  not  a  syllable  of  the  gospel  has 
been  found  in  nature.  The  eternal  power  and  God- 
head to  which  nature  is  witness  is  not  the  "  power 
of  God  unto  salvation,"  but  condemnation.  Law 
argues  a  lawmaker,  and  the  uniformity  of  nature, 
the  unity  of  the  Godhead  and  His  irresistible  rule. 
So  much  nature  preaches,  when  skillfully  inter- 
preted ;  but  what  it  does  not  make  plain  and  what 
the  gospel  teaches  specifically,  is  that  there  is  hope 
for  a  man  who  has  violated  law.  "  The  law  is 
holy,"  whether  exhibited  in  nature  or  "  written  in 

*  Goethe. 


36     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

their  hearts,"  or  "  received  by  the  dispensation  of 
angels,"  or  "  written  with  the  finger  of  God  "  and 
"  given  by  Moses,"  but  "  the  law  worketh  wrath  " 
for  the  transgressor  wherever  it  operates.  "The 
law  was  given  by  Moses,  but  grace  and  truth  came 
by  Jesus  Clirist."  "What  the  law  could  not  do, 
in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God  sending 
His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  and  for 
sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh  that  the  ordinance 
of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us  "  (Kom.  viii. 
3-4).  Nature  and  her  laws  join  the  statutes  of 
Inspiration  in  proclaiming  judgment.  The  utmost 
they  can  do  jointly,  is  to  act  as  a  schoolmaster  to 
bring  those  they  condemn  in  humble  penitence  to 
Christ,  who  "taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
God's  spiritual  and  benevolent  attributes  are  not 
revealed  in  nature.  Indeed,  they  are  concealed 
within  the  folds  of  His  garment  of  material  things. 
"Who  coverest  Thyself  with  light  as  with  a 
garment "  (Psa.  civ.  2).  Even  light  which  reveals 
other  objects  conceals  Him,  so  ineffably  glorious  is 
He.  No  man  has  seen  God  in  nature  at  any  time. 
"  The  only  begotten  Son,  which  is  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Father,  He  hath  declared  Him."  A  heathen 
said : 

"  Except  the  gods  themselves  to  thee  unveil, 
Search  as  thou  wilt  the  world  thou  seeks't  in  vain." 


It  is  a  historical  fact  that  nature-worship  has 
been  the  result  of  nature-teaching,  when  nature 
was  the  only  revelation  possessed.    Even  Words- 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  37 

worth  in  his  day  was  accused  of  maldng  nature 
"  a  sort  of  God."  Those  who  have  had  no  other 
book  but  nature,  have  had  no  other  gods  but 
natural  objects.  With  no  other  revelation  but 
that  which  nature  affords,  men  have  descended 
to  the  vilest  fetishism,  scarcely  a  race  excepted. 
The  groves  which  Pliny  tells  us  were  the  first 
temples  and  which  brought  men  face  to  face  with 
nature  in  their  worship,  early  became  characterized 
by  the  foulest  aspects  of  ancient  civilization.  Even 
Israel  fell  to  this  when  the  tribes  were  scattered 
and  the  influence  of  the  true  religion  was  weak. 
"  They  saw  every  high  hill,  and  all  the  thick  trees 
and  they  offered  there  their  sacrifices  and  there 
they  presented  the  provocation "  (Ezek.  xx.  28). 
To  counteract  these  superstitious  and  licentious 
rites  of  grove-worship,  God  pronounced  some  of 
His  severest  judgments ;  and  perhaps  it  was  in 
part  to  prevent  this  apostasy  that  the  tabernacle, 
the  temple  and  the  church-house  were  appointed 
to  be  adjuncts  of  worship.  However  that  may 
be,  the  point  is  clearly  established  that  man  needs 
a  supplemental  revelation  to  that  which  nature 
makes. 

2.  Conscience,  too,  has  its  part  and  its  place  in 
man's  moral  control ;  but  is  its  voice  sufficient  ? 
Does  conscience  enable  men  to  know  and  impel 
them  to  do  their  religious  duties  without  special 
revelation  ?  That  the  normal  function  of  con- 
science is  religious  in  its  nature,  and  that  its  die- 


38     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

tates  have  something  of  religious  instructions  in 
them  is  not  to  be  doubted.  As  conscience  came 
from  its  maker  it  was  finely  adjusted  and  from 
it  primitive  people  learned  much  as  to  truth  and 
right,  but  granting  this,  all  must  still  admit  that 
the  heathen  are  left  in  their  heathenism  without 
a  written  revelation.  That  conscience  was  created 
for  a  religious  purpose  and  that  it  performs  a 
religious  function  there  is  not  a  reasonable  doubt. 

But  the  above  questions  raise  others,  namely, 
just  what  is  that  function  ?  and  what  was  that 
purpose  ?  And  all  resolve  themselves  into  the 
old  question  of  whether  the  function  of  con- 
science is  legislative  or  judicial.  Does  conscience 
originate  law,  or  does  it  render  decisions  accord- 
ing with  a  law  which  it  has  been  taught  to 
recognize  as  a  supreme  standard  of  authority  ? 
Manifestly  the  latter  is  the  case.  If  conscience 
itself  were  the  standard  of  truth  and  right, 
there  would  not  be  such  variance  in  the  decisions 
which  consciences  render  in  given  cases.  Con- 
sciences pronounce  judgments  according  to  the 
standards  of  law  acknowledged  and  respected 
by  their  respective  possessors.  These  judgments 
are  frequently  immoral  because  the  standards 
under  which  the  decisions  are  rendered  are  false. 
The  only  way  to  make  uniform  moral  decisions 
universal  is  to  secure  the  universal  recognition  of 
a  uniform  moral  law  according  to  which  all  con- 
sciences may  pronounce  their  judgments.  Con- 
science always  makes  up  its  decisions  in  the  light 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  39 

of  its  moral  standard.  Conscience  will  always  tell 
a  man  he  ought  or  ought  not  but  what  he  ought 
or  ought  not  will  be  determined  by  the  education 
the  conscience  has  had.  "  For  absolutely  right 
decisions,  conscience  is  dependent  upon  knowl- 
edge." *  Bishop  Gore,  as  quoted  by  Dr.  Strong,  is 
right :  "  Man's  first  duty  is,  not  to  follow  his  con- 
science, but  to  enlighten  his  conscience."  As  Dr. 
Strong  himself  puts  it,  "We  are  bound  not  to 
'follow  our  conscience,'  but  to  have  a  right  con- 
science to  follow."^  The  moral  and  religious 
course  of  men  vary  as  the  religious  authority  by 
which  their  consciences  are  regulated  vary.  In 
the  pilot  house  of  the  "  Coasters,"  the  ships  which 
do  iDUsiness  along  the  seacoasts,  there  may  be 
found  a  compass  and  a  chart.  It  is  safe  to  guide 
the  ship  by  the  compass  only  so  long  as  the  com- 
pass corresponds  to  the  chart.  For  one  reason  or 
another  the  compass  may  become  deranged,  but 
the  chart  is  unchangeable.  Every  man  has  use 
for  the  compass  of  conscience  and  the  chart  of 
Revelation ;  and  conscience  renders  man  the  best 
service  by  keeping  the  course  of  his  life  true  to 
that  Chart.  Being  without  the  Chart  of  Revela- 
tion the  course  of  the  heathen  has  been  devious 
and  fateful. 

God  is  the  author  of  both  conscience  and  the 
Bible.     He  made  conscience  first,  and  if  it  had 

*  Peabody. 

=^See  Dr.  Strong's  discussion  in  "  Systematic  Theology, "  Vol. 
II,  pp.  498-504. 


40     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

been  a  sufficient  guide  and  a  safe  court  of  appeal 
under  all  circumstances,  He  would  not  probably 
have  made  a  Bible  at  all.  It  was  precisely  be- 
cause conscience  could  not  always  be  depended 
upon  that  He  gave  us  a  Eevelation.  Eevelation 
was  prepared  to  regulate  unreliable  consciences  and 
deceptive  religious  experiences.  It  is  above  con- 
science and  experience  as  authority,  as  is  seen 
by  the  fact  that  it  was  given  after  conscience  and 
experience  jointly  had  failed  as  guides  to  the  re- 
ligious natures  of  men.  It  is  the  want  of  this 
Revelation  as  a  supplement  to  their  consciences 
that  makes  the  main  difference  between  the 
heathen  civilizations  and  the  Christian  of  to- 
day. 

A  slightly  different  question  has  been  brought  to 
the  front  in  our  time  and  being  to  the  front,  needs 
to  be  looked  into  frankly  and  handled  courageously, 
for  God  loves  men  who  are,  to  use  Isaiah's  phrase, 
"  valiant  for  the  truth  on  earth."  The  fine  phras- 
ing of  the  cultured  advocates  of  "  the  religion  of 
the  spirit,"  in  the  delusive  use  of  such  words  and 
phrases  as  "  consciousness  "  and  "  the  religious  con- 
sciousness "  deceive  many.  Popular  preachers  and 
writers,  while  skimming  the  surface  of  a  subject 
into  which  Sabatier  dives,  have  popularized  this 
new  philosophy  (we  would  not  call  it  theology) 
which  is,  in  effect,  the  old  question  of  conscience  as 
a  moral  guide,  dressed  in  the  new  drapery  of  a  meta- 
physical and  psychological  verbiage.  Individual 
consciousness  or  experience  as  final  authority  is  the 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  41 

contention.  As  fine  as  the  theory  is  made  to  look, 
it  is  a  dangerous  heresy  and  as  profound  as  seems 
some  of  the  reasoning  by  which  it  is  supported,  it 
presents  in  fact  a  superficial  and  most  partial  view 
of  human  nature.  The  men  who  preach  it  are  the 
product  of  Christian  culture  and  of  an  advanced  and 
prevailing  Christian  society,  and  the  theory  presup- 
poses a  race  of  men  with  Christian  consciences  living 
under  like  wholesome  influences,  for  in  the  case  of 
such  men  only  could  the  theory  have  any  plausi- 
bility ;  and  in  such  case  even,  it  is  easy  to  prove 
from  historic  example  that  the  repudiation  of  higher 
authority  than  their  own  moral  consciousness  and 
religious  experience  would  result  in  sad  moral  lapse. 
Sabatier,  the  head  master  of  this  school,  was 
provincialized  in  his  thinking  by  his  nearness  to  and 
experience  with  the  Roman  hierarchy,  against 
which  his  soul  was  in  revolt  and  from  which  he 
fancied  he  had  freed  himself.  Because  of  the  over- 
shadowing dread  of  false  authority,  he  was  unable 
to  distinguish  the  difference  between  ecclesiastical 
and  Biblical  authority,  between  ecclesiasticism  and 
pure  revelation,  between  the  authority  of  Scripture 
and  the  authority  of  exegesis,  the  authority  of 
Christ  and  the  authority  of  the  Pope.  He  was  a 
victim  of  his  environment  and  never  succeeded  in 
thinking  himself  free.  The  nightmare  of  an 
ecclesiastical  hierarchy  and  of  an  arrogant,  monop- 
olized interpretation  of  Scripture  was  upon  him, 
and  in  his  effort  to  throw  it  off,  he  kicked  off  the 
blanket  of  true  religious  authority  which  kept  him 


42     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

warm.  We  may  compassionate  him,  but  there  is 
not  the  same  excuse  for  men  in  Protestant  lands 
who  make  it  their  business  to  echo  his  opinions. 
And  that  such  should  think  that  they  have  thought 
deeply  !  Let  me  quote  a  discriminating  remark  by 
President  MuUins  :  "  The  fatal  objection  to  this 
theory  is  that  the  Christian  consciousness  is  not 
and  cannot  be  a  fixed  quantity.  It  varies  with 
intelligence,  education,  moral  quality,  heredity, 
environment,  and  has  varied  from  age  to  age.  The 
very  law  of  development  invoked  by  the  advocates 
of  the  theory  forbids  it.  Not  until  the  law  of 
development  ceases  to  operate  can  the  Christian's 
consciousness  become  the  final  appeal  in  religion. 
Imperfect  man  can  never  carry  within  him  the 
ultimate  standard  of  truth."  ^ 

Let  it  be  clearly  understood,  that  the  men  who 
regale  us  with  their  specious  and  high-sounding 
theories  about  the  "  religion  of  the  spirit "  and  the 
"  appeal  to  the  religious  consciousness "  are  bent 
upon  destroying  the  authority  of  the  Bible — this 
is  their  supreme  ambition  and  effort.  We  would 
be  willing  to  concede  that  the  opinions  of  men, 
deducted  however  honestly  from  the  Word  of  God, 
are  subject  to  modification  and  change,  but  we  will 
not  admit,  as  they  insist  we  shall,  that  the  au- 
thority of  the  Scripture  must  be  given  up.  The 
Scriptures,  themselves,  are  the  quickest  and  surest 
correctors  of  false  notions  about  themselves  and 
about  religion.     Let  them  stand  in  their  appointed 

The  Task  of  the  Theologian  of  To-day." 


1  ** 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  43 

place  of  authority  and  judgment,  and  if  one  man 
blunders  in  their  interpretation,  another  will  soon 
point  out  his  mistake.  It  is  the  fallibility  of  hu- 
man opinion,  and  not  the  divine  Revelation  men 
need  to  be  convinced  of ;  but  this  is  precisely  what 
some  do  not  want  to  admit,  hence  their  hostility  to 
an  infallible  Bible. 

The  Christian's  conscience  is  the  result  of  the 
Christian  culture  of  conscience,  and  the  Word  of 
God  as  hallowed  authority  is  the  first  element  in 
the  curriculum  of  this  culture.  That  conscience  is 
most  truly  Christian  w^hich  in  the  whole  course  of 
its  discipline  and  training  has  been  most  under  the 
tutelage  of  the  Spirit,  has  been  taught  the  Bible  by 
Him,  and  now  most  implicitly  yields  to  its  au- 
thority. The  Bible  is  the  Spirit's  text-book,  pre- 
pared and  used  by  Him,  and  Christ  the  Redeemer 
is  the  subject  which  He  teaches.  The  man  who 
would  have  a  Christian  conscience  must  first  believe 
that  the  Bible  speaks  a  true  word  about  Christ  and 
on  that  belief  yield  to  Him  an  obedient  faith 
upon  the  terms  which  are  authoritatively  stipulated 
in  the  Word.  The  Spirit  exalts  Jesus  infinitely. 
The  religious  spirit  which  this  "religion  of  the 
spirit "  lauds,  but  is  impotent  to  produce,  is  itself 
conditioned  upon  surrender  of  self  to  Christ,  the 
acceptance  and  enthronement  of  Him  as  Lord  of 
life  and  destiny.  This  raises  the  value  of  con- 
science as  religious  authority ;  but  it  is  shallow  rea- 
soning which  even  then  attributes  final  and  exclu- 
sive authority  to  it.     Some  Christian  consciences 


44     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

are  good,  some  pure,  some  weak.  Some  con- 
sciences have  been  the  greatest  sinners  and  some 
experiences  the  greatest  heresies.  Some  con- 
sciences restrain  from  evil  and  some  allow  their 
possessors  to  descend  to  abysses  of  iniquity.  Some 
"  speak  lies  branded  in  their  own  conscience  as  with 
a  hot  iron  "  (1  Tim.  iv.  2).  "  To  the  pure  all  things 
are  pure;  but  to  them  that  are  defiled  and  un- 
believing nothing  is  pure ;  but  both  their  mind  and 
their  conscience  are  defiled "  (Titus  1.  15).  It  is 
this  defilement  of  conscience  which  impairs  a  man's 
power  of  moral  discrimination  for  what  is  pure  and 
impure,  what  is  right  and  wrong,  that  the  advo- 
cates of  natural  religion  and  the  religion  of  the 
spirit  take  no  account  of.  It  is  true  that  some  men 
have  died  for  their  consciences,  but  it  is  true  that 
some  others  killed  them  for  conscience's  sake. 
Some  to  satisfy  their  own  consciences  and  the  con- 
sciences of  their  gods,  offer  human  sacrifices. 

Of  modern  heresies  none  have  surpassed  in  absurd- 
ity and  irrationality  those  which  have  appealed  to 
experience  for  authority.  The  heart  has  its  heresies 
as  well  as  the  head.  When  weak  and  tempted  man 
cuts  loose  from  authority  and  commits  himself,  and 
he  certainly  will,  to  false  authority,  he  sets  adrift 
on  a  treacherous  sea,  strown  with  many  ^vrecks  and 
much  loss  both  of  men  and  precious  cargo  of  faith. 
Men  not  only  need,  we  repeat,  the  compass  of  con- 
science, but  the  chart  of  Kevelation  if  they  are  to 
sail  this  sea  with  safety.  Even  then,  the  compass 
will  sometimes  be  deranged,  but  the  chart  is  un- 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  45 

changeable  and  may  serve  to  detect  derangement 
in  the  compass. 

3.  Keason  has  a  religious  function ;  is  it  not  suffi- 
cient to  guide  men  into  truth  without  supernatural 
revelation  ?  Now,  perhaps,  the  only  idolatry  which 
can  survive  in  an  age  of  scholarship  and  culture,  is 
the  deification  of  intellect.  Pride  of  intellect  may, 
as  has  been  said,  be  the  sin  of  small  minds,  but  it  is 
as  certainly  a  common  sin  among  some  who  would 
be  thought  the  possessors  of  great  minds.  So 
much  has  been  said  about  "pure  reason,"  "the 
rights  of  intellect,"  and  "the  emancipation  of 
mind,"  etc.,  some  observations  may  be  timely. 

The  worst  may  as  well  be  said  at  first.  Reason 
does  not,  unaided,  reach  the  first  religious  goal, 
moral  character.  It  has  nothing  in  it,  unaided  by 
the  divine  afflatus,  to  vitalize  the  moral  faculties 
of  man.  Hence  some  of  the  profoundest  philoso- 
phers have  been  the  foulest  sinners  and  others  have 
possessed  the  most  sadly  blunted  moral  sensibilities. 
Plato,  in  his  Republic,  advocates  a  community  of 
wives  and  pleads  for  the  advantages  to  be  derived 
from  parents  not  knowing  their  own  children  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  death  penalty  for  the 
weakly  and  unhealthy.  The  vulgar  lives  that 
some  of  the  "immortals"  among  ancient  philoso- 
phers lived  is  well  known.  Such  examples  prove 
the  inefficiency  of  reason  to  effect  moral  ends  for 
the  philosophers  themselves.  A  familiar  but  con- 
vincing instance  of  what  reason  divorced  from  re- 


46     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

ligious  authority  can  do,  is  furnished  by  the  his- 
tory of  France,  and  the  crusade  for  the  rights  of 
reason.     It  was  when  the  devotees  of  reason  had 
repudiated   Christianity  and  discarded  Eevelation 
that  the  citizens  of  Paris  chose  a  woman  as  their 
"Goddess  of  Keason."     We  will  take  a  French- 
man's description  of  the  drama:  "Clad  in  white 
garments  and  a  sky-blue  mantle,  with  the  red  cap 
on  her  head  and  a  pike  in  her  hand,  they  placed 
her    on  a  fantastically  ornamented  car  and  con- 
ducted her,  surrounded  by  crowds  of  bacchanalian 
dancers  to  the  '  Temple  of  Keason,'  as  they  were 
pleased  to  rename  the  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame. 
There  she  was  seated  on  the  high  altar,  and  amidst 
profound  obeisance,  frantic  speeches  and  frivolous 
songs,  divine  honour  was  paid  her."     This  was  a  per- 
formance in  the  name  of  reason  without  Eevelation. 
While  denying  the  infallibility  of  reason,  Eeve- 
lation does  not  limit  the  exercise  of  its  powers. 
The    Biblical    revelation    recognizes  and  honours 
reason  as  it  is  not   recognized  and  honoured  in 
any   other  religion   of    the    world.     A   quotation 
from    Christlieb    states     the     matter     admu-ably. 
"Eevelation  is  for  our  theology   what   the  tele- 
scope is  for  our  knowledge  of  the  stars  and  bears 
the  same  relation  to  reason  and   conscience  as  a 
telescope  does  to  the  naked  eye.     One  in   either 
case  requires  the  other.     The  telescope  enhances, 
sharpens,  and  extends  the  power   of   the  natural 
eye  but  demands  at  the  same  time  its  full  activity."  * 

1  '•  Modern  Doubt  and  Christian  Belief,"  p.  133. 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  47 

The  Bible  is  not  only  a  reasonable  Book,  but  pays 
tribute  to  reason  by  appealing  to  it,  and  offering 
it  assistance.  You  would  not  offer  a  telescope 
to  a  blind  man  nor  the  Bible  to  one  denied  or 
bereft  of  reason.  Revelation  has  proved  to  be  the 
best  aid  to  reason,  as  the  history  of  the  human 
mind  shows.  To  this  fact  a  contrast  of  intellectual 
conditions  in  Christian  and  heathen  civilizations 
is  sufficient  proof.  Modern  mind  received  its 
fertilization,  and  modern  science  its  inspiration 
from  Biblical  and  Christian  sources.  The  dis- 
coveries and  applications  of  modern  science  are 
absolutely  confined  to  and  controlled  by  those 
races  whose  reason  has  been  supplemented,  aided 
and  stimulated  by  the  divine  revelation.  Ee- 
vealing  the  Creator,  as  it  does,  revelation  has 
furnished  a  key  to  creation. 

The  writer  quoted  above  finds  a  striking  and 
beautiful  illustration  of  how  revelation  supplements 
reason  and  the  two  are  mutually  serviceable,  in  the 
story  of  the  Wise  Men  of  the  East  who  found  the 
child  Jesus  guided  by  their  astronomy,  supplemented 
by  Revelation.  They  followed  the  star  to  Jerusalem 
and  there  found  those  who  could  tell  them  where  the 
Scripture  said  "He  should  be  born."  By  the  light 
of  the  prophetic  revelation,  they  found  the  path  to 
the  manger.  The  highest  office  of  reason  is  to 
guide  men  to  revelation  which  will  guide  them 
to  Christ  as  their  teacher.  Reason  has  its  place, 
but  also  its  limitations.  Revelation  is  reason's 
inspiration  and  completion.     There  is   no  contra- 


48     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

diction  between  them  but  there  is  dependence  of 
the  one  and  a  transcendence  of  the  other. 

We  observe  again  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  "  age  of  reason."  Ev^ery  age  has  two  classes, 
the  learned  and  the  unlearned  and  there  is  always 
more  ignorance  than  knowledge,  more  unreason- 
ableness than  reasonableness.  In  the  citizenship 
of  intellect  there  are  ahvays  Platos  and  proletariats 
and  the  Platos  are  always  in  the  minority  and 
have  a  proverbially  smaller  progeny.  It  is  not 
every  century  that  produces  one,  and  few  of 
them  leave  heirs.  All  men  must  possess  adequate 
powers  for  reasoning  or  we  must  have  the  assist- 
ance of  revelation.  Otherwise  we  fail  of  religious 
knowledge. 

Again,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  pure  reason. 
If  there  were,  all  the  philosophers  would  be  agreed 
as  to  what  is  the  most  reasonable  hypothesis  re- 
specting ultimate  truth.  But,  Mr.  Balfour  says 
that,  "  Down  to  our  time,  philosophers  have  not 
come  to  an  agreement  even  as  to  the  basis  from 
w^hich  speculation  has  to  proceed."  Man's  religious 
needs  are  too  imperative  for  him  to  wait  for  the 
philosophers  to  decide  what  is  the  ultimate  and 
very  truth  he  needs.  Mr.  Balfour  has  suggested 
a  most  interesting  exercise  by  which  to  determine 
the  amount  of  pure  reason  and  original  thought 
there  is  in  any  one  of  our  intellectual  processes, 
namely :  the  subtraction  from  any  example  of 
lofty  and  advanced  thinking  all  that  the  thinker 
has  inherited,   all   that  he  has  unconsciously  ab- 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  49 

sorbed  and  appropriated  from  others,  and  all  that 
he  has  obtained  by  imitation,  by  habit,  by  instinct 
or  impulse,  and  "  reason's  happy  guess "  and 
exhibit  the  remainder  as  a  specimen  of  a  great 
mind's  pure  and  original  thought!  This  "re- 
mainder "  would  probably  be  the  means  of  a  most 
wholesome  humiliation  and  an  effective  antidote 
for  the  pride  of  intellect.  Keason  has  its  limitations 
and  those  limitations  are  vast  and  many,  and  most 
of  all  in  the  realm  of  relimon. 

Professor  Kidd  may  be  cited  again  in  rebuttal 
of  the  arguments  of  the  advocates  of  natural  re- 
ligion. The  progress  of  society  has  been  along 
the  lines,  not  of  the  rational,  but  the  ultra-rational. 
This  does  not  mean,  we  may  be  pardoned  for  the 
superfluous  remark,  that  religion  is  unreasonable, 
but  above  reason.  JSTot  the  institutions  of  our 
reason,  but  the  institutions  of  our  religious  faith 
and  emotions,  are  the  conspicuous  and  controlling 
aspects  of  our  civilization.  The  great  motive  and 
motor  power  which  shapes  and  controls  the  de- 
velopment of  the  social  organism  in  any  land,  is 
religion  and  not  reason.  The  church  architecture 
of  our  cities  is  more  conspicuous  than  our  school 
architecture.  The  Bible  is  found  in  more  homes 
than  are  the  books  of  philosophers.  More  people 
know  the  Christian  songs  and  are  more  moved  by 
them  than  know  or  care  for  any  or  all  of  the 
intellectual  sciences.  There  is  here  no  belittling; 
of  these  high  and  worthy  realms  of  human  thought, 
but  the  citation  of  a  significant  fact. 


50     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Moreover,  religious  impulse  has  done  more  than 
all  else  beside  to  kindle  a  love  for  truth,  a  passion 
to  find  and  impart  it.  The  thought  that  truth, 
all  truth,  is  a  heavenly  treasure,  its  acquisition  a 
duty,  its  possession  a  sacred  stewardship,  its  pro- 
mulgation well  pleasing  to  God  and  a  benediction 
to  men,  is  more  profoundly  believed  and  more 
widely  and  consistently  held  by  those  who  believe 
the  Christian  Revelation  than  any  others  or  all 
others  combined. 

Christians  have,  in  recent  years,  put  more  of 
their  individual  fortunes  voluntarily  into  insti- 
tutions of  learning  and  at  their  personal  expense 
dispensed  more  free  schooling  than  all  the  world 
of  religionist  and  non-religionists  beside  since 
time  began.  Believing  that  reason  is  insufiicient 
for  man's  guidance  without  revelation,  but  that 
reason  brought  to  its  best  by  Christian  help  will 
prove  the  best  ally  of  Christianity,  and  that  reve- 
lation itself  imposes  the  duty  of  impro\dng  the 
human  mind.  Christians  have  led  the  world  in 
education.  So  in  a  manner  befitting  its  superiority, 
revelation  has  become  a  helper  and  a  teacher  of 
reason.  The  effort  has  not  been  wasted,  for  the 
human  mind  is  clearest  and  reason  is  strongest 
where  gospel  light  is  brightest.  The  intellectual 
achievement  of  the  age  is  largely  with  Christianity. 
Those  nations  which  are  without  the  Revelation, 
still  grope  in  the  darkness  of  a  benighted  intellec- 
tualism  leading  a  forlorn  religious  hope. 

"Where  and  when  the  Christian  revelation  has 


A  Supernatural  Revelation  51 

done  most  to  unlock  the  secrets  of  nature,  restore  a 
normal  religious  consciousness,  expand  the  human 
mind  and  strengthen  conscience,  Eevelation  is  still 
needed  and  most  highly  prized.  Everywhere  else 
the  \Yorld  lies  in  wickedness  and  darkness  awaiting 
its  healing  light. 


ni 

THE  COMMON  ELEMENTS  IN  RELIGION 

THERE  are  those  who  make  much  of  the 
matters  which  are  common  to  all  religions. 
In  order  to  satisfy  such,  and  to  add  weight 
to  the  great  doctrines  which  it  is  our  plan  to  set 
forth,  we  take  time  here  for  reference  to  these 
common  elements  of  religions. 

First,  then,  while  we  maintain  that  the  constitu- 
tive and  productive  doctrines  of  Christianity  are 
not  found  in  any  ample  and  credible  w^ay  in  any 
other  religion,  we  acknowledge  that  there  are 
minor  and  incidental  phases  of  truth,  religious  and 
moral  maxims,  scattered  in  greater  or  less  profusion 
through  all  the  religious  systems. 

"  There  is  light  in  all, 
And  light  with  more  or  less  shade  in  all, 
Man-modes  of  worship." 

These  elements  of  truth  w^hich  are  common  to 
Christianity  and  other  religions  will,  of  course,  be 
permanent,  but  they  are  not  the  prominent  and  dis- 
tinguishing elements  in  either.  It  would  be  easy  to 
show  that,  besides  being  the  sole  proprietor  of  its 
fundamental  doctrines,  Christianity  duplicates  and 
transcends  the  best  that  is  in  other  religions.  But 
this  does  not  warrant  us  in  ignoring  the  smallest 

52 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      53 

element  of  truth  found  anywhere.  Christianity  is 
the  last  religion  to  justify  either  ignorance  or  the 
ignoring  of  the  truth  found  in  whatever  quarter. 
Not  a  word  fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  which  was 
an  embargo  on  truth  of  any  sort,  degree  or  system. 
The  man  who  believes  in  Christ  and  possesses  His 
word  is,  of  all  men,  least  excusable  for  living  in 
error  or  willful  ignorance.  This  was  the  watch- 
word of  the  Reformation.  It  was  stated  in  Luther's 
dictum :  "  It  is  never  safe  to  do  anything  against 
the  truth."  Christianity  is  the  heir  to  all  the  truth, 
and  as  new  light  shall  break  from  the  Book,  and 
shine  into  our  minds  from  above  and  from  the  world 
about  us,  Christianity  is  destined  to  become  the 
possessor  and  the  dispenser  of  truth  in  increasing 
bounty.  "Whatsoever  things  are  true,"  are  its 
rightful  possession  and  its  free  gift.  After  attend- 
ing the  Parliament  of  Religions  at  Chicago,  Dr. 
George  Dana  Boardman  made  this  discriminating 
remark :  "  We  often  hear  it  said  that  Christianity 
is  the  only  true  religion,  and  therefore  it  is  exclusive 
of  all  other  religions.  I  venture  to  think  that  it  is 
the  other  religions  Avhich  are  really  exclusive ;  that 
it  is  the  Christian  religion  which  is  really  inclusive, 
and,  therefore,  that  it  is  only  the  Christian  religion 
that  is  adequate  for  mankind."  ^ 

The  recognition  of  the  minor  elements  of  truth 
in  the  ethnic  faiths  does  not  at  all  prove  or  neces- 
sarily presuppose  that  these  religions  are  of  divine 
inspiration  or  appointment,  nor  for  a  moment  raise 

1"  Life  and  Light,  "p.  108. 


54     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

a  question  as  to  the  rights  of  Christianity  to  become 
the  universal  religion.  Ko  logic  based  on  the  pres- 
ence of  these  elements  is  sufficient  to  prove  that 
these  religions  were  even  schoolmasters  temporarily 
appointed  for  their  respective  votaries  to  prepare 
them  for  Christianity.  The  truth  they  contain 
may  create  a  favourable  condition  and  constitute  an 
advantage  and  point  of  connection  in  missionary 
artifice,  but  do  not  validate  the  systems  themselves. 
A  more  plausible  genesis  of  these  fragments  of 
truth  can  be  pointed  out. 

There  are  endless  arguments  to  prove  that  there 
cannot  reasonably  be  but  one  religion  bearing  the 
imprimatur  of  God  and  many  to  disprove  the 
divine  origin  of  several  with  their  corruptions  and 
contradiction ;  such  arguments,  for  instance,  as  the 
unity  of  God,  a  unifying  purpose  for  the  race  which 
religion  necessarily  contemplates,  the  hot  antip- 
athies which  diverse  religions  engender,  etc.  If 
there  were  no  other  arguments,  the  claim  of  Chris- 
tianity to  be  the  absolute  religion,  the  demands 
which  it  makes  upon  its  disciples  to  make  it  the  ex- 
clusive and  universal  one,  and  the  judgment  which 
the  Bible  pronounces  upon  all  religions  but  its  own, 
would  certainly  seem  sufficient  to  save  any  Chris- 
tain,  at  least,  from  falling  into  the  delusion  that  Con- 
fucianism, for  example,  is  good  enough  for  China, 
Buddhism  for  Japan,  Brahmanism  for  India,  Mo- 
hammedanism for  Arabia,  Africa,  etc.  This  ques- 
tion may  be  passed.  It  has  commended  itself  to  a 
broad  but  unthinking  charity,  which  did  not,  as  a 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion     ^^ 

sound  religious  science  requires,  take  account  of 
preponderating  considerations  of  the  case,  namely, 
the  fundamental  and  distinguishing  elements ;  or  to 
state  it  differently,  contrast  religions  rather  than 
compare  them.  "Where,  then,  shall  we  look  for  the 
sources  of  these  common  elements  in  other  religions 
since  essential  Christianity  does  not  allow  us  to 
attribute  to  the  religions  a  divine  origin  and 
sanction,  but  does  allow  us  to  recognize  the  validity 
of  all  the  truth  they  contain  ? 

These  vestiges  of  truth  may,  in  part,  have 
originated  in  the  unity  of  the  race  and  the  identity 
of  man's  moral  constitution,  which  this  unity  ex- 
plains. Man  is  a  creature  with  moral  faculties 
which  are  the  gift  of  the  Creator,  and,  except  as 
they  are  disabled  by  sin,  are  true  and  moral  in 
expression.  It  is  but  normal  for  these  faculties  to 
sanction  truth  and  right  and  even  to  originate 
truthful  expression  of  moral  ideas.  Moral  maxims 
may  be  the  expression  of  man's  religious  nature, 
not,  perhaps,  perfect  and  complete,  but  true. 
Cicero  long  ago  said,  "  This  is  unanswerable,  that 
man  everywhere  thinks  of  future  life  as  a  fact." 
Endowed  with  instinct  and  capacity  for  future  life, 
a  philosophy  of  immortality  naturally  leaped  from 
the  heart  of  primitive  man.  Kobert  Browning,  the 
poet-theologian,  sings  of  this  religious  intuition : 

"  I  know  He  is  there,  as  I  am  here, 
By  the  same  proof,  which  seems  no  proof  at  all, 
It  so  exceeds  familiar  forms  of  proof. ' ' 

(Hohenstiel-Schwangan.) 


56     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

"  The  truth  in  God's  breast, 
Lies  trace  upon  trace  on  ours  impressed  : 
Though  He  is  so  bright,  and  we  so  dim. 
We  are  made  in  image  to  witness  Him." 

{Christmas  Eve.) 

The  religious  creeds  are  evidences  that  God  made 
men  religious  and  for  religion.  They  are  what 
dolls  are  for  little  girls ;  they  show  instinct  and 
capacity.  Helen  Keller,  deaf,  dumb  and  blind, 
from  her  babyhood,  knew  that  there  was  a  God 
before  Phillips  Brooks  told  her  so  when  she  was 
ten  years  of  age.  She  was  created  with  religious 
intuitions.  God  has  not  suffered  the  total  ex- 
tinction of  these  moral  faculties  and  religious  apti- 
tudes in  any  nature.  Says  Welcke,  "The  divine 
Spirit  has  always  been  manifested  in  the  feeling 
even  of  the  most  uncultivated  peoples."  Dr.  James 
Freeman  Clarke  says  of  that  most  unlikely  speci- 
men, the  wild  child  of  the  Arabian  desert,  "  The 
Arab  has  also  a  sense  of  spiritual  things  which 
appears  to  have  a  root  in  his  organization."  It 
is  this  religiousness  of  human  nature  that  impostors 
have  taken  advantage  of.  Decoran  says,  ''  Every 
child  is  born  into  the  religion  of  nature ;  its 
parents  make  it  a  Jew,  a  Christian,  or  a  Magian." 
It  was  Mohammed's  keen  eye  for  this  human  in- 
stinct for  religion  which  made  this  colossal  im- 
postor a  success  in  his  business.  There  are  several 
very  modern  examples  of  a  like  discernment.  It 
is  this  natural  religiousness  Avhich  accounts  for 
some,  at  least,  of  the  correspondences  in  all  re- 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      57 

ligions.  Men  are  religious  in  response  to  the  laws 
of  their  nature,  and  sectarian  in  conformity  to  their 
training. 

And  this  psychological  fact  sets  up  a  most 
convincing  circumstantial  evidence  for  the  claim 
of  Eevelation,  namely,  that  God  "made  of  one 
every  nation  of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of 
the  earth.  .  .  .  That  they  should  seek  God 
— if  haply  they  might  feel  after  Him  and  find 
Him  "  (Acts  xvii.  27).  "  And  the  man  called  his 
wife's  name  Eve ;  because  she  was  the  mother  of 
all  living  "  (Gen.  iii.  20).  The  ancestral  line  runs 
through  succeeding  generations  until  the  flood  re- 
duces the  race  to  a  remnant  and  then,  "  God  blessed 
Noah  and  his  sons  and  said  unto  them,  be  fruitful 
and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth."  Down  to 
the  enlightened  time  of  the  Augustan  Age,  the 
genealogies  are  kept  and  known  and  given  in  the 
Scriptures  running  through  generations  of  those 
who  were  the  sons  of  others,  who  were  the  sons 
of  Adam,  "  The  son  of  God  who  was "  (Luke  iii. 
23-28).  This  is  the  lineage  of  us  all.  Paul  said 
to  Jew  and  Greek  alike,  "We  are  also  His  off- 
spring "  (Acts  xvii.  28). 

There  are  many  historical  facts  to  support  the 
view  that  there  still  survives  among  all  the  great 
nations  some  of  the  traditions  of  the  early  religious 
history  and  vestiges  of  original  precepts  taught 
them  in  the  race's  infancy.  The  doctrines  which 
explain  facts  and  forms  seem  to  have  dropped  out 
of  mind  but   some   incidents  and  observances  re- 


58     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

main.  The  race  originated  with  God  and  He  had 
much  dealing  with  it  while  it  was  young.  It  was 
schooled  of  Him  in  some  fundamental  religious 
ideas  long  before  there  was  a  heathen  nation  or 
religion.  The  flood  was  brought  on  by  an  apostasy. 
The  Ten  Commandments  were  the  law  of  the 
antenoachian  times,  though  afterwards  written  in 
stone  for  Moses.  The  third  commandment,  for 
example,  was  instituted  in  celebration  of  creation 
so  that  man  might  begin  his  career  religiously. 

Every  great  religion  has  its  sacred  seventh  day,  a 
remnant  of  the  ancient  statutes.  It  is  conceded  by 
students  in  comparative  religion  that  a  monotheism 
lay  behind  the  most  ancient  polytheism.  One  of 
the  most  distant  voices  that  speak  to  us  from  the 
far  past  is  Zenophanes,  six  centuries  before  Christ. 
"  There  is  one  God  supreme  over  all  gods,  diviner 
than  mortals."  *  Harnack  quotes  St.  Augustine  as 
follows:  "Be  it  known,  Faustus,  or  those  rather 
who  are  charmed  by  his  productions,  that  our  doc- 
trine of  divine  monarchy  is  not  borrowed  from  the 
heathen  but  that  on  the  other  hand  the  heathen 
themselves  had  not  so  wholly  lapsed  into  the 
worship  of  false  gods  as  to  relinquish  all  belief 
in  one  True  God."  Dr.  James  Freeman  Clarke 
illustrates  "how  the  wrecks  of  old  beliefs  come 
drifting  down  the  stream  of  time  bound  in  those 
frail  canoes  which  men  call  words,"  by  pointing 
the  similarity  of  the  words  which  in  different  lan- 
guages designate  the  Supreme  Deity.     In  Sanscrit 

^  "Supernatural  Eeligion,"  Vol.  I,  p.  76. 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      59 

it  is  Div ;  in  Greek,  Dios ;  Latin,  Deus  ;  French, 
Dieu  ;  and  English,  Divinity.  Certainly  nothing 
but  a  common  source  can  account  for  this.  Dr. 
Augustus  H.  Strong  says  in  his  essay  on  Homer : 
"  We  are  persuaded  that  the  sacrificial  languages 
of  the  '  Iliad '  and  the  '  Odyssey '  can  never  be 
explained  except  by  supposing  that  it  is  the  relic 
of  an  age  when  the  race  had  a  better  understanding 
of  God  and  of  Sin."  '  There  are,  in  all  the  great  sys- 
tems of  religion,  perhaps  without  exception,  varying 
accounts  of  the  flood,  which,  while  partial  and  al- 
ways lacking  the  rational  excellence  of  the  Biblical 
account,  show  that  these  religions  have  inherited 
this  knowledge  of  that  awful  catastrophe  from  a 
remote  past  and  probably  a  common  source.  No 
race  has  entirely  gotten  away  from  the  dictates 
of  the  laws  of  God  written  in  our  members  ;  and 
some  traditions  of  that  early  school  in  which  God 
was  teacher  of  His  own  law  remain  with  all. 

Moreover,  it  grows  more  probable  with  investiga- 
tion and  increase  of  knowledge  that  the  Pentateuch 
is  the  oldest  religious  classic,  and  so  the  original 
source  of  these  stories.  A  complete  cataloguing  of 
the  facts  would  show  preponderating  historical 
proof  that  the  original  religion  was  a  pure  one 
which  suffered  deterioration  and  not  a  fetishism 
which  has  improved  by  evolution. 

The  Bible  gives  us  the  origin  of  dissimilar  lan- 
guages. Before  the  flood  "  The  whole  earth  was  of 
one  language  and  of  one  speech  "  (Gen.  xi.  1).     The 

1  "The  Great  Poets  and  Their  Theology,"  p.  52. 


6o     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

builders  of  the  Babel  displeased  God,  and  as  a 
penalty  and  in  order  to  facilitate  His  plans  for 
separate  nations  to  possess  the  earth,  He  miracu- 
lously gave  the  respective  tribes  various  tongues. 
The  place  of  their  sin  was  "  called  Babel ;  because 
Jehovah  did  there  confound  the  language  of  all  the 
earth  "  (Gen.  xi.  9). 

This  narrative  in  Genesis  also  gives  us  the  origin 
of  nations.  Just  prior  to  the  confusion  of  speech 
there  was  division  of  the  people  into  respective 
family  groups  of  the  three  sons  of  Noah, — Shem, 
Ham  and  Japheth.  This  division  was  also,  accord- 
ing to  the  varying  shades  of  colour  and  complexion, 
represented  respectively  by  these  three  sons  and 
their  descendants.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in 
ancient  times  proper  names  had  adjectival  signif- 
icance. Accordingly  Shem  means  "  name,"  "  the 
man  of  name  or  renown,'"  in  whose  line  was 
Abraham  and  Christ  and  in  whose  language  the 
Old  Testament  was  written,  thus  justifying  the 
name.  The  Hebrews  are  his  racial  descendants. 
Japheth  signifies  "  fair,"  referring  more  especially 
to  the  "  fairness  of  complexion,"  "  father  of  fair 
descendants,  and  of  those  who  spread  abroad,"'^ 
referring  to  Grecian,  Teutonic,  and  Anglo-Saxon 
people.  Ham  is  "  black  "  or  "  sunburnt,"  and  he 
was  the  father  of  the  Negro  race,  although  he  was 
a  brother  of  the  Hebrew  and  Anglo-Saxon  fore- 
fathers, Shem  and  Japheth. 

Not  only  were  these  divisions  made  acoording  to 

^  Fausset.  '  IMd. 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion     61 

colour,  but  the  territorial  distribution  of  the 
several  groups  as  made  favour  the  preservation  and 
even  the  increasing  distinction  of  these  shades  of 
colour.  The  descendants  of  Shem,  the  ancestor 
of  the  Jews,  were  settled  in  "  Mesha  .  .  .  unto 
Sephar,"  that  is  in  Western  Asia;  to  those  of 
Japheth,  progenitor  of  the  white  races,  were  "  the 
isles  of  the  Gentiles  divided,"  and  they  were  to 
*•  spread  abroad,"  a  prophecy  of  their  expansion 
towards  the  west  into  Europe,  America,  and 
Australia ;  to  the  tribes  descending  from  Ham 
was  assigned  territory  ''in  the  land  of  Shinar," 
which  was  to  the  south  and  embraced  lands  in 
Africa,  Egypt,  and  Ethiopia. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  according  to  the  Biblical  dis- 
tribution, the  white  man  in  the  north,  the  black  man 
in  the  south,  and  the  Hebrews  in  an  intermediate 
geographical  position,  the  climate  for  each  was 
favourable  for  the  preservation  of  the  complexional 
distinctions.  Given  these  three  types  of  complexion 
and  varieties  of  climates  and  we  can,  by  a  most 
rational  theory,  account  for  all  the  intermediate 
shades  of  skin  known  to  us.  The  intermarriages, 
migrations,  and  consequent  changes  wrought  in 
course  of  time  by  peculiarities  of  climate  is  the  most 
reasonable  and  least  artificial  explanation  yet  pro- 
posed of  facts  as  we  find  them.  If  facts  are  explained 
thus,  their  explanation  ought  not  to  be  discounted 
simply  because  it  is  found  to  harmonize  with  Scrip- 
ture. "Written  more  than  3,000  years  ago,  the 
genealogical  account  in  Genesis  x.  is  the  oldest  and 


62     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

most  trustworthy  history  of  the  dispersion  of  man- 
kind." 

The  manner  in  which  ethnological  and  philolog- 
ical science  corroborate  this  Biblical  account  is  very 
remarkable  confirmation  of  the  Scriptures.  These 
facts  relevant  to  these  respective  branches  of  science 
have  been  treated  by  many  competent  scholars,  and 
while  they  do  not  agree  in  detail,  there  is  suiRcient 
agreement  on  essential  points  to  constitute  remark- 
able testimony.  Good  authority  claims  that  the 
Biblical  account  of  racial  linguistic  lines  issuing  and 
diverging  from  the  plains  of  Mesopotamia  have 
been  found  to  meet  and  harmonize  with  the  con- 
verging lines  of  ethnological  and  philological 
science  which  modern  scholars  have  been  able 
patiently  to  trace  backwards  from  our  times  to  that 
remote  past  when  nations  and  languages  had  their 
origin.  Meanwhile,  ethnologists  and  philologists 
are  still  working  at  their  uncompleted  task,  and 
may  yet  as  with  one  voice  corroborate  the  Scrip- 
ture. The  physiological  and  psychological  evidence 
is  conclusive. 

These  facts  which  may  seem  to  be  exceedingly 
dry  to  some,  and  impractical  as  well,  nevertheless 
have  a  significance  and  a  pertinence  to  this  discus- 
sion. Nature  is  older  than  nations,  and,  while 
there  are  different  nations  and  a  diversity  of  speech, 
human  nature  is  one  in  origin  and  fundamentally  a 
unit.  It  is,  therefore,  but  reasonable  to  account 
for  some,  at  least,  of  the  correspondences  found  in 
the    separate  religions  of  the  nations  upon  this 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion     63 

ground  of  common  origin  and  unity.  The  common 
hkeness  of  soul  which  survived  the  division  of  the 
race  and  the  origui  of  diverse  speech  forces  aspira- 
tions into  expression,  which,  when  rightly  inter- 
preted, is  found  to  have  something  common  to  all. 
All  originated  with  God  and  the  intuitions  and 
needs  of  men  of  every  land  and  speech  cry  out  for 
God,  if  haply  He  may  be  found ;  and  a  cry  is  the 
common  language  of  the  world.  Surely  we  should 
expect  to  find  some  common  notes  when  men  of 
common  natures  and  common  religions  needs  raise 
their  plaintive  cry  for  light  and  religious  satisfac- 
tion. The  difference  is,  that  some  men  have  ac- 
cepted the  Revelation,  which  is  our  heavenly 
Father's  answer  to  this  cry,  and  others  have  not. 
While  the  latter  still  possess  some  remnants  of  their 
unsquandered  patrimony  of  truth,  some  tatters  of 
the  early  garment  of  religion,  received  in  the 
infancy  of  the  race  before  as  prodigals  they  left 
their  father's  house,  they  are  still  in  want  and  their 
hearts  call  back  from  the  country  into  which  they 
willfully  wandered.  They  are  in  rags  soiled  by  sin, 
and  feed  on  husks  of  superstition,  myth  and  fable 
and  shall  suffer  want  until  they  return  to  their 
father's  house. 

It  is  a  fact  clearly  proven  by  competent  investi- 
gators that  nearly  all  of  the  ethnic  faiths  either 
unconsciously  inherited  or  deliberately  plagiarized 
many  things  from  the  true  and  revealed  religion, 
and,  in  all  cases,  have  by  contact  received  marked 
impressions  from  it,  as  well  as  from  one  another. 


64     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

This  applies  both  to  their  fragmentary  content  of 
truth  and  the  practice  of  some  common  virtues  by 
their  v^otaries.  A  famiHar  example  of  the  first  is 
that  of  the  miity  of  the  Godhead  insisted  upon  in 
the  Koran.  This  great  truth  was  not  a  revelation 
to  the  Impostor  but  a  deliberate  piracy ;  mdeed  it 
was,  according  to  Sale  and  others,  written  into  his 
creed  by  an  apostate  Jew  and  Christian,  who  were 
the  literary  composers  and  amanuenses  of  this 
illiterate  deceiver.  It  has  been  thought  that  the 
reverence  for  parents  so  characteristic  of  Confucian- 
ism is  an  inheritance  from  a  remote  ancestry  which 
knew  the  law  embodied  in  the  sixth  commandment. 
The  Semitic  invasions  of  Egypt  at  a  very 
primitive  period  may  be  taken  as  an  early  ex- 
ample of  how  the  original  stock  of  pure  religious 
ideas  was  distributed,  and  while  becoming  cor- 
rupted, left  some  surviving  remnants.  Buddhism 
was  profoundly  affected  by  early  Christianity 
before  the  present  Buddhistic  literature  was  pro- 
duced, and  it  shows  signs  of  this  in  such  matters  as 
its  fake  incarnations.  Judaism  was  historic  before 
Buddha  Avas  born.  The  prophet  Daniel,  Confu- 
cias,  Buddha,  Pythagoras  and  Socrates  probably  all 
lived  within  a  period  of  one  hundred  ^^ears,  and  this 
when  Hebrew  religion  was  old  and  the  composition 
of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  was  drawing  to  a 
close.  Buddhism  was  modified  in  time  by  Judaism 
and  Christianity  as  it  modified  and  was  in  turn 
modified  by  Brahmanism,  against  which  it  was  a 
revolt.     Modern  history  is  giving  examples  of  this 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      65 

sort  of  process  in  Shintoism,  Confucianism,  and 
Buddhism  in  Japan,  and  of  Christianity  and  Bud- 
dhism in  the  Brahmo-Somaj  in  India.  There  is 
strong  evidence  to  the  effect  that  the  life  of  Gau- 
tama, the  Buddha,  was  written  subsequent  to  and 
in  the  light  and  imitation  of  the  life  of  Christ 
contained  in  the  Gospels.  The  legend  of  miracu- 
lous birth,  the  story  of  his  temptation  and  his  pres- 
entation in  the  temple  are  not  found  in  the  original 
accounts  and  are  palpable  forgeries.'  Modern 
Buddhism  is  not  only  unlike  early  Buddhism  but 
in  India,  for  instance,  is  unlike  itself  in  Japan.  By 
appropriation  and  compromise  it  has  lost  much  of 
its  origmal  identity  in  every  land  in  which  it  has 
made  conquest,  and  has  become  a  composite  of  re- 
ligion, ethical  systems  and  philosophies.  In  Japan 
it  is  a  triplicate  of  Buddhism,  Shintoism  and  Confu- 
cianism and  there  are  no  devotees  to  pure  Buddhism. 
The  fact  that  some  barnacles  of  heathenism 
are  found  attached  to  certain  societies  in  Christen- 
dom, does  not  invalidate  this  argument  but  illus- 
trates the  historical  truth  and  helps  us  to  under- 
stand how  heathen  religions  have  come  to  pos- 
sess things  common  to  them  and  Christianity. 
Eoman  Catholicism  bears  many  visible  marks  of  its 
contact  with  heathenism.  So  far  as  history  takes 
us  back,  there  is  not  one  great  religion,  or  system 
that  stands  instead  of  religion,  which  did  not  grow 
out  of  some  previous  system,  Judaism  excepted. 

^See    Lorimer's    "The    Argument    for    Christianity,"    pp. 
421-422. 


66     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

The  case  is  not  made  out  for  Judaism  and  there  is 
little  promise  that  it  will  be. 

One  fact  which  has  never  received  its  proportion 
of  attention  may  be  cited  here.  Not  one  of  the 
surviving  older  ethnic  religions  was  at  the  begin- 
ning distinctly  a  religion  at  all,  and  to  them  in  our 
day  there  is  attached  a  religious  significance  which 
their  history  and  the  contents  of  their  "  sacred " 
books  do  not  w^arrant.  Mohammedanism  may  be 
left  out  of  this  count,  for  it  grew  out  of  the  joint  sys- 
tem of  Judaism  and  Christianity.  But  Confucian- 
ism and  Brahmanism,  Buddhism  and  the  rest,  were 
certainly  not  originally  and  are  scarcely  now  dis- 
tinctly religious  systems.  Ancient  Egypt,  perhaps, 
represented  the  only  distinct  religious  system 
among  primitive  peoples,  outside  the  Hebrew  race, 
and  the  original  Egyptian  faith  has  perished.  The 
others  were  the  collected  philosophical  speculations 
of  the  ancients  who  intermeddled  with  religious 
matters,  as  philosophers  do.  Even  in  our  land  and 
time,  much  w^hich  passes  for  higher  religious 
thought  is  philosophy  meddling  with  religion. 
These  speculations  about  religion  came  gradually 
to  stand  instead  of  religion  and  to  receive  in  a  de- 
gree religious  homage.  But  they  lacked  and  still 
lack  many  essentials  of  a  religion,  as  all  philosophy 
does.  People  blunder  when  they  mistake  philoso- 
phers for  true  religious  teachers.  Brahmanism  was, 
at  first,  and  is  yet,  distinctly,  a  transcendental  and 
metaphysical  philosophy.  Of  a  personal  God,  the 
starting  point  and  the  primal  element  of  religion, 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      67 

Brahmanism  knew  nothing.  This  philosophy  like 
all  transcendentalism  lost  itself  in  vagaries.  How 
to  etherialize  one's  self  and  reach  absorption  in 
impersonal  infinity  was  its  task.  Buddhism,  an 
attempted  reformation  of  Brahmanism,  arising  at  a 
later  day  had  somewhat  more  of  human  interest, 
but  it  was  a  philosophy  without  a  God.  It  was 
atheistic,  its  god  being  intellect,  its  goal  perfect 
wisdom  and  the  extinction  of  desire,  its  task  how 
to  get  rid  of  physical  pain.  God  is  but  sublimated 
man.  Gautama,  by  intellectual  emancipation, 
became  Buddha,  God,  and  the  present  devotee 
hopes  to  become  Buddha.  Maurice  characterized 
Buddhism  as,  "Deistic,  Atheistic,  Pantheistic, 
Human  Doctrine."  He  also  says  that,  "  The  one 
infallible  diagnostic  of  Buddhism  is  belief  in  the 
infinite  capacity  of  the  human  intellect.  It  has 
been  working  out  its  results  for  all  these  thousand 
years,— and  what  have  they  been  ?  The  worship  of 
the  intellect  has  not  caused  intellect  to  grow.  That 
mighty  portion  of  the  globe  over  which  Buddhism 
rules  is  nearly  the  most  ignorant  portion  of  it,"  ' 

The  worship  of  the  intellect  does  not  increase  in- 
telligence. In  point  of  intellectual  light,  and  we 
select  Buddhism's  strong  point,  the  difference  be- 
tween Buddhistic  and  Christian  ci\alization  is 
the  difference  between  starlight  and  daylight. 
This  philosophy  more  and  more  assumed  the  role 
of  religion,  and  finally  came  into  competition  with 
Christian  theology. 

1  "  Religions  of  the  World,"  p.  84. 


68     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Philosophy  is  always  competing  with  theology. 
Confucianism  was  solely  a  domestic,  social,  and 
economic  science.  Confucius  positively  disclaimed 
any  knowledge  of  God,  without  which  no  man 
could  establish  a  religion.  In  the  presence  of  three 
philosophical  systems  China  is  without  a  religion. 
But  these  philosophies  contain  many  axiomatic 
religious  truths,  which  have  been  inherited  and 
acquired  from  many  sources.  But  the  most  pre- 
cious pearls  of  truth  which  these  systems  contain 
and  which  in  our  day  are  pointed  out  by  their 
liberal  admirers,  first  and  still  adorn  the  divine 
Eevelation  and  are  here  displayed  in  a  fairer  set- 
ting. 

Men  have  gained  some  religious  ideas  from 
material  nature  and  natural  law.  Here  is  a 
volume  open  to  all  who  are  endowed  with  reason. 
The  ancients,  who  lived  closer  to  the  heart  of 
nature  than  we  moderns  do,  were  especially  close 
observers  of  nature.  Men  early  looked  with  wild- 
eyed  wonder  upon  the  luna  changes,  the  constel- 
lations of  the  heavens  and  the  great  objects  and 
forces  of  nature.  At  first,  awe  was  on  them,  which 
deepened  into  worship,  and  men  bowed  in  rever- 
ence before  sun,  or  moon  or  mountain.  But  grad- 
ually more  discriminating  and  reflective  minds 
began  to  see  truer  religious  significance  in  nature. 
They  saw  in  the  divine  orderliness  of  nature  evi- 
dence of  intelligence  back  of  this  wondrous 
mechanism  and  panorama.  The  benevolent  adapta- 
tions of  vegetable  and  animal  life  to  human  need, 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      69 

the  strength  and  glory  of  mountain  and  sea,  the 
peaceful  and  harmonious  march  of  the  planets, 
the  regular  recurrence  of  the  seasons — these  all 
proved  existence  somewhere  of  an  author  and 
superintendent,  possessed  of  superhuman  intelli- 
gence and  might.  Day  unto  day  uttered  speech 
and  night  unto  night  showed  knowledge.  Astrol- 
ogy was  perhaps  the  first  of  the  sciences  to  engage 
the  human  mind.  The  stars  looked  down  so 
brightly  and  smiled  so  radiantly  in  those  clear 
Eastern  skies  as  to  charm  man  and  to  call  for  an 
explanation  of  their  creation  and  glory.  There 
was  evidence  of  intelligence  and  power,  though 
the  heart  was  made  sick  for  a  satisfying  assurance 
of  God's  love,  mercy  and  forgiveness  of  trans- 
gressors. 

What  they  found  cannot  with  appropriateness 
be  called  a  revelation.  They  saw  rather  a  display 
of  law  and  evidence  of  intelligence.  When  they 
had  gone  a  little  further  with  their  observations, 
they  discovered  that  even  physical  laws  were 
meting  out  penalties  upon  the  immoral,  that  is 
to  say  the  transgressor  of  these  laws.  Nature 
did  not  even  hint  at  a  redemption  for  him  who 
had  broken  law.  The  forebodings  of  conscience 
were,  moreover,  now  corroborated  by  nature's  ret- 
ributions. Violations  of  moral  law  entailed  phys- 
ical consequences  and  the  demonstration  was 
before  their  eyes.  "  God  manifested  it  unto  them, 
for  the  invisible  things  of  Him  since  the  creation 
of  the  world   are  clearly  seen,   being  perceived 


70     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

through  the  things  that  are  made,  even  His  ever- 
lasting power  and  divinity  "  (Rom.  xviii.  19).  Of 
jpower  and  divinity  they  had  proof.  Nature  in 
them  and  about  them  furnished  evidence  of  this, 
but  of  the  love  and  heart  of  God  nature  was  dumb. 
The  power  manifested  in  nature  operated  on  moral 
lines  identical  with  those  inner  promptings  and 
warnings  of  their  consciences. 

So  men  were  from  the  first  beset  by  law.  These 
various  religions,  therefore,  tell  us  much  about  law 
but  nothing  about  gospel.  In  some  of  them  the  un- 
erring judgments  which  natural  law  has  from  the 
beginning  been  grinding  out,  has  produced  a  pessi- 
mism and  a  fatalism.  Buddhism  is  an  example  of 
this.  Nature  displays  law ;  Revelation  contains 
doctrine.  Doctrine  is  the  divine  explanation  or 
interpretation  of  important  facts  and  mysteries. 
The  ancients  had  their  religious  natures  greatly 
aroused  by  the  objects  and  forces  of  nature,  but 
they  got  only  partial  and  superficial  religious  ideas 
from  them,  lacking  a  revelation  as  a  key  to  nature. 

At  what  conclusions  have  we  now  arrived  ? 
We  have  sought  to  point  out  the  most  rational 
ground  upon  which  we  may  account  for  that 
truth  in  heathen  religions  which  all  good  men 
are  willing  to  recognize.  The  reasonable  sources 
we  have  seen  are  the  identical  moral  constitutions 
of  men,  due  to  a  common  origin,  that  is  from  God, 
the  source  of  moral  right  and  truth  ;  the  remnants 
of  original  religious  instruction  still  remaining  in 
the  possession  of  all ;  the  influence  which  religions 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      71 

mutually  exert  over  one  another ;  and  religious 
deductions  from  nature.  Beyond  these  we  do  not 
believe  that  heathen  religions  go  in  their  content 
of  true  religious  ideas.  That  is  to  say,  one  does 
not  have  to  go  beyond  natural  causes  to  find  the 
most  reasonable  ground  upon  which  to  account 
for  whatever  truth  he  may  find  in  any  other  re- 
ligion beside  Christianity  and  Judaism.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Christian  Eevelation  is  not  some- 
thing which  men  have  obtained  or  attained  but 
something  communicated  by  the  Spirit.  It  is  not 
human  wisdom  or  knowledge,  but  religious  doc- 
trine. Christianity  is  not  mythology,  that  is  an 
issue  of  the  imagination ;  not  philosophy,  a  prod- 
uct of  human  reason ;  not  invention,  a  thing 
wrought  out  after  a  human  scheme  or  stumbled 
upon  by  chance;  nor  an  evolution,  something 
grown  out  of  something  else  by  the  natural  laws 
of  human  progress ;  not  a  human  achievement, 
and,  therefore,  a  human  boast :  it  is  a  supernatural 
religion — the  religion  of  salvation. 

But  the  plight  of  the  heathen  is  something  worse 
than  yet  appears.  By  a  long  dwelling  in  the  dark- 
ness of  sin,  their  moral  powers  have  been  enfeebled 
and  their  spiritual  eyes  well-nigh  blinded,  so  that 
they  cannot  make  the  best  use  of  the  fragments  of 
knowledge  within  their  reach  as  inadequate  as  they 
are.  They  can  no  longer  discern  and  set  forth  even 
so  good  a  protraiture  as  might,  for  instance,  be 
drawn  from  nature.  The  picture  of  God,  to  name 
at  once  the  fatal  defect,  is  but  a  caricature  in  what- 


72     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

ever  faith  you  find  it.  In  all  save  Mohammed- 
anism, it  is  either  a  filmy,  shadowy,  formless,  un- 
reality without  profile  or  contour,  or  else  a  celes- 
tialized  man,  who  is,  we  may  remark,  without  his- 
torical verification ;  or  again,  as  in  Mohammedan- 
ism, God  is  a  monster. 

"  What  then  is  the  nature  of  these  points  of  con- 
tact ?  I  answer :  they  are  for  the  most  part,  not 
discoverable  in  the  genuine  dogmas  of  a  revealed 
religion." '  The  resemblances,  and  the  best  is 
never  more  than  this,  have  to  do  with  the  inci- 
dental, while  the  differences  and  the  contradictions 
concern  the  fundamental  matters  of  religion.  Be- 
ing without  a  revelation,  these  creeds  are,  for  the 
most  part,  made  up  of  a  medley  of  religious  intu- 
itions, crude  scientific  observations,  obsolete  specu- 
lations of  philosophers,  and  fragments  of  mythology. 
Of  necessity,  they  do  not  present  a  system  of  re- 
ligious truth,  but  a  bewildering  hodge-podge,  inter- 
esting but  fruitless.  The  sacred  books  of  the  Hindu 
disagree,  one  part  with  another,  and  one  book  with 
another,  as  radically  as  they  do  with  the  Bible  and 
that  on  the  very  things  which  they  represent  to  be 
the  fundamental  basis  of  the  Hindu  faith.^ 

If  we  except  Mohammedanism,  and  it  is  not  plain 
that  this  is  necessary,  there  is  not  in  any  of  them 
anything  which  can  be  appropriately  called  doctrine^ 
nothing,  for  instance,  corresponding  with  the  great 
constructive  and  vitalizins^  doctrines  of  the  Atone- 


^  Hard  wick  in  "  Christ  and  Other  Masters,"  p.  213. 
See  "Great  Religious  of  the  World,"  p.  82. 


s 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      73 

ment,  Kegeneration,  etc.,  so  luminously  set  forth  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Doctrines  are  not  intellectual 
abstractions,  nor  philosophical  speculations.  They 
are  even  more  than  truth  or  a  sound  but  cold, 
moral  philosophy.  "  The  words  that  I  have  spoken 
unto  you,  are  spirit,  and  are  life"  (John  vi.  63). 
Doctrine  is  the  vital  and  cohesive  principle  in  the 
Scriptures  which  bind  all  the  history  and  ethics  to- 
gether and  denotes  where  their  moral  potentiality 
is  lodged. 

**  Who  of  the  living  seeks  to  know  and  tell, 
Strives  first  the  living  spirit  to  expel ; 
He  has  in  hand  the  separate  parts  alone, 
But  lacks  the  spirit-bond  which  makes  them  one." 

Bishop  Westcott  rightly  defines  a  doctrine  as  an 
"  inexhaustible  spring  of  strength."  Doctrines  em- 
body vital  forces  and  act  on  the  motor  centres  of 
man's  moral  nature.  They  excite  spiritual  emo- 
tions, beget  spiritual  experiences,  inspire  holy  living 
and  impel  to  active  and  unselfish  service.  The 
Oriental  faiths,  being  as  they  are  evolutions  of 
philosophy,  preserve  the  true  characteristics  of  phi- 
losophy by  avoiding  obvious  definition,  and  mu- 
tually setting  forth  irreconcilable  contradictions. 
The  profoundest  scholars  and  lifelong  students  of 
ethnic  faiths  have  not  been  able  to  reduce  their 
contents  to  consistency  or  specific  dogmas.  Speak- 
ing of  Brahmanism,  Dr.  A.  C.  Lyal  says,  "  It  is 
founded  on  somewhat  vague  philosophy  and  em- 
braces schools  of  thought,  accepts  different  theories 


74     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

as  to  the  divine  nature.  It  has  no  dogmatic  rulings 
upon  such  questions  as  are  settled  by  Christian  and 
Mohammedan  creeds.  .  .  .  Hinduism  and  even 
Buddhism  has  never  succeeded  in  so  limiting  and 
clearly  stating  of  faith  and  morals  as  to  lay  down 
and  impress  them  upon  the  people  at  large,  for 
their  practical  guidance  in  life.  They  have  noth- 
ing, for  instance,  like  our  Ten  Commandments  or 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  order  our  lives  and  direct 
our  consciences."  *  Those  things  in  them  which  may 
be  considered  to  be  their  fundamentals  and  neces- 
sary to  their  identity  and  distinctiveness  are  not 
only  unlike  but  radically  opposed  to  the  essential 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  w^hile  the  things  which 
are  common  to  them  and  Christianity  do  not  in  any 
instance  embrace  the  saving  principles  of  the  gos- 
pel and  are,  therefore,  negligible  Avhen  we  come  to 
consider  the  missionary  duty  of  Christianity  to  the 
people  of  these  faiths. 

Strip  Christianity  of  the  minor  elements  which 
it  holds  in  common  with  other  religions  and  it 
will  be  Christianity  still  by  virtue  of  its  peculiar 
doctrines  :  strip  any  heathen  religion  of  the  vesture 
of  truth  common  to  Christianity  which  it  wears, 
and  it  will  be  a  more  repulsive  heathenism  for  it. 
The  distinctive  Christian  doctrines  are  those  which 
produce  the  Christian  experiences  and  give  glory  to 
the  Christian  system.  Not  only  are  the  common 
elements  minor  as  compared  to  the  distinctive  ele- 
ments of  the  heathen  faith,  but  these  minor  truths 

1  "  Great  Religions  of  the  World,"  pp.  102-103, 


The  Common  Elements  in  Religion      75 

are  so  preponderated  by  a  mass  of  error,  often 
puerile  and  grotesque,  and  not  infrequently  posi- 
tively dangerous  and  vile,  and  so  separated  from 
their  source,  and  so  long  associated  with  error  and 
evil  that  even  these  have  not  their  proper  power  and 
influence. 

The  latitudinarian  view  which  is  held  in  some 
quarters  and  which  some  pseudo-Christians  are  try- 
ing to  popularize,  viz.,  that  Hinduism,  for  instance,  is 
better  adapted  to  the  people  of  India  than  Christi- 
anity, indeed,  that  it  is  a  gentle  brother  in  the  great 
religious  family  to  whom  due  respect  should  be 
shown  and  a  non-missionary  attitude  assumed,  be- 
trays alike  ignorance  of  human  nature,  the  nature  of 
religion  in  general,  and  the  fundamental  matters  and 
significance  of  both  Hinduism  and  Christianity  in 
particular,  and,  withal,  a  callous  disregard  for 
Christ's  authority.  No  consistent  and  devoted 
heathen  or  Christian  ever  thought  of  such  an  atti- 
tude. Perhaps,  nothing  conveys  a  better  idea  of 
the  utterly  unrelated  and  unassimilable  nature  of 
heathenism  and  Christianity  than  the  hot  fury  with 
which  the  first  set  upon  the  latter  at  its  beginning 
and  the  burning  zeal  with  which  the  early  Chris- 
tians laboured  to  save  the  world  from  its  religions. 
That  religion  which  is  true  must  at  last  trium- 
phantly hold  all  the  field  strown  with  every  re- 
ligious error. 


lY 

IS  ONE  RELIGION  FOR  ALL  MEN  A  REASON- 
ABLE HOPE? 

OF  all  disagreements  among  men  to-day 
religious  differences  are  the  saddest. 
Personal  disputes  between  believers  are 
unfortunate,  antagonisms  among  evangelical  Chris- 
tian sects  are  deplorable,  the  radical  divergence  of 
Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  belief  is  calamitous, 
and  the  most  pitiful  sight  our  heavenly  Father 
looks  upon  is  the  absolute  separateness  of  the  races 
into  national  and  territorial  religions  at  once  dis- 
similar and  discordant,  immiscible  and  hostile.. 

The  best  service  now  to  be  rendered  humanity 
is  to  point  it  to  a  complete  and  universal  sys- 
tem of  religious  truth,  the  common  birthright 
of  men.  The  greatest  problem  that  remains  for 
the  human  intellect  to  deal  with  and  for  future 
generations  to  settle  is  that  of  one  religion  for  all 
races  of  men.  Busy  with  rocks,  plants  and  stars 
hitherto,  men  have  given  grudging  thought  to  this 
question.  God's  call, "  Come  let  us  reason  together," 
has  fallen  on  preengaged  ears,  and  man's  irrespon- 
siveness  has  wrung  from  God  the  accusation,  "  My 
people  doth  not  consider."  But  happily  the  great 
question  is  now  more  and  more  engaging  the  atten- 
tion of  the  great  minds  and  impressing  them  with 

76 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope  ?    77 

its  importance.  Thoughtful  men  are  coming  to 
agree  Avith  Carlyle,  that  "  A  man's  religion  is  the 
most  unportant  thing  about  him,"  and  those  who 
are  unselfishly  interested  in  mankind  are  also  be- 
coming interested  in  religion.  Dr.  Morris  Jastrow 
says  in  his  remarkable  book,  "  The  Study  of  Ke- 
ligion " :  ^'  The  study  of  religion  has  taken  its 
place  among  contemporary  sciences  and  the  impor- 
tance of  the  study  can  be  denied  by  no  one  who 
appreciates  the  part  religion  has  played  in  the 
history  of  mankind,  and  still  plays  at  the  present 
time."  *  Goethe  not  only  speaks  for  the  truth, 
but  for  the  minds  of  his  class  when  he  affirms 
that,  ^'  The  real  and  the  deepest  theme  of  the 
world's  and  man's  history,  to  Avhich  all  other  sub- 
jects are  subordinate,  is  the  conflict  between  the 
faith  and  unbelief." 

This  supreme  subject  must,  after  a  while,  receive 
first  attention.  Impelled  by  manifold  spirit  of 
progress  in  the  world,  men,  "  in  the  foremost  files 
of  time,"  have  been  brought  face  to  face  with  this 
question  of  religion  and  made  to  think  on  it.  And 
the  times  are  preparing  conditions  which  will  force 
to  an  issue  the  question  of  the  true  and  the  false 
and  of  the  rightful  dominion  of  that  which  stands 
the  test  of  thought  and  investigation.  "  The  battle 
of  centuries  between  belief  and  unbelief  is  in  our 
days  nearly  tending  to  the  point  where  the  decisive 
question  must  be  put."^ 

^  "  The  study  of  Religion,"  p.  7. 

'Christlieb,  "Modern  Doubt  and  Christian  Belief,"  p.  136. 


yS     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

1.  The  intellectual  progress  of  the  human  race 
forces  a  settlement  of  the  religious  problem.  All 
men  Avho  think  truly  on  any  subject,  think  towards 
one  another  and  contribute  to  synthetic  knowledge. 
One  religion  for  all  men  is  the  focal  point  of  all 
religious  thought.  Two  thousand  years  ago  Chris- 
tianity took  the  initiative  in  the  enterprise  to 
synthesize  all  true  religious  belief  and  bring  all 
men  to  one  religious  faith.  The  words  of  a  recent 
philosopher  show  that  the  philosophic  spirit  is  in 
harmony  with  the  gospel  and  the  best  sentiment 
of  our  times.  "  The  unification  of  all  belief  into 
an  ordered  whole,  compacted  into  one  coherent 
structure  under  the  stress  of  reason,  is  an  ideal 
which  we  can  never  abandon." '  As  men  acquire 
mental  strength  and  gain  intellectual  scope,  they 
turn  from  the  small  questions  to  the  large,  from 
general  familiarity  to  particular  knowledge. 


"  I  doubt  not  thro'  the  ages  one  increasing 
purpose  runs 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened 
with  the  process  of  the  sun." 

( Tennyson.) 


And  this  forecasts  that  religion  and  not  any 
natural  science  shall  most  engage  the  great  thinkers 
of  the  future ;  for,  as  a  problem  for  the  mind,  the 
spiritual  is  more  subtle  than  the  material,  the 
supernatural  is  profounder   than   the  natural,  the 

^Balfour's  "  Foundations  of  Belief,"  p.  241. 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope*?    79 

eternal  is  loftier  than  the  temporal  and  the  science 
of  God  and  soul  is  a  nobler  science  than  that  of 
matter  and  force.  The  eloquent  words  with  which 
Tyndall  closed  his  famous  Belfast  Address  sounds 
a  true  note  of  prophecy  :  It  "  will  assuredly  be 
handled  by  the  loftiest  minds  when  you  and  I  like 
streaks  of  morning  cloud  shall  have  melted  into 
the  infinite  azure  of  the  past."^ 

In  the  future  indifference  to  the  religious 
question  or  the  missionary  problem  will  be  at- 
tributed to  intellectual  puerility  if  not  imbecility. 
Keviewing  "  Some  Elements  of  Keligion,"  Canon 
Liddon  says :  "  ISTot  to  be  interested  in  the  life  of 
Jesus  is  to  be  I  do  not  say  irreligious,  but  unintel- 
ligent." Great  minds  deal  with  great  questions. 
Hereafter  the  men  with  the  greatest  minds  will  be 
the  most  enthusiastic  religionists.  "Theology  is 
the  queen  of  sciences "  and  "  offers  opportunity 
to  the  utmost  powers  of  man."^  Attainments  in 
other  sciences  will  carry  men  up  to  this  and  will 
require  of  the  devotee  of  the  sciences  a  knowl- 
edge of  religion  to  which  they  stand  as  step- 
ping stones  in  the  intellectual  ascent.  The  so- 
ciologist, the  psychologist,  the  ethnologist,  the 
philologist  and  the  biologist  all  find  that  their 
sciences  cross  and  are  penetrated  by  the  religious 
question,  and  they  cannot  know  them  fully  without 
a  knowledge  of  religion.  Men  will  be  compelled, 
if  not  persuaded,  to  take  up  this  branch  of  human 

^  "Fragments  of  Science,"  p.  214. 

2 Clark's  "Outline  of  Christian  Theology,"  p.  53. 


8o     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

learning.  If  in  their  intellectual  pride  they  will 
not  take  it  up  as  a  purely  religious  question,  they 
will,  to  guarantee  their  scholarship,  be  compelled  to 
recognize  it  and  ponder  it  as  something  essential  to 
a  rounded  scheme  of  philosophy.  This  is  the  signif- 
icance of  the  "  chairs  "  of  moral  philosophy  and 
more  particularly  of  "comparative  religions"  al- 
ready established  in  the  chief  universities. 

Religion  is  proprietor  of  a  certain  class  of  facts 
which  must  be  included  in  the  final  synthesis  of 
knowledge  and  into  these  facts  theology  penetrates 
more  deeply  than  any  other  science.  Without 
agreeing  with  Herbert  Spencer  as  to  what  he  takes 
to  be  the  fad  of  religion,  we  may  quote  this  lofty- 
minded  man  again  as  a  witness  that  religion  is  of 
such  significance  that  it  cannot  be  ignored  by  the 
thoughtful.  He  says  :  "  An  unbiased  consideration 
of  its  general  respects  forces  us  to  conclude  that  re- 
ligion, everywhere  present  as  a  weft  running  through 
the  warp  of  human  history,  expresses  some  eternal 
fact."  '  Mr.  Spencer  gives  this  definition  of  philos- 
ophy :  "  Philosophy  is  completely  unified  knowl- 
edge." These  "eternal  facts"  must  surely  be 
included  in  this  unification.  And  he  specifies 
theological,  physical  and  ethical  divisions  of  this 
synthesis.^  Not  only  does  Mr.  Spencer  recognize  re- 
ligion as  an  essential  element  in  unified  knowledge, 
but  he  recognizes  progress  towards  its  inclusion  in 
the  best  scheme  of  human  thought.  "  The  progress 
of  intelligence  has  throughout  been  dual.     Though 

»  "  First  Principles,"  p.  16.  '  lUd.,  p.  111. 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope*?    81 

it  has  not  seemed  so  to  those  who  made  it.  Every 
step  in  advance  has  been  a  step  towards  both 
the  natural  and  the  supernatural."  * 

And  yet  science  and  philosophy  forever  fall  short 
of  the  heart  and  secret  of  religion.  The  one  may 
deal  with  religious  archaeology,  the  other  with  in- 
tellectual propositions  but  cannot  reach  the  vital 
creative  thing  itself. 

Philosophy  is  the  advance  grade  in  the  curriculum 
of  the  present  uitellectual  culture ;  but  the  frontiers 
of  philosophy  touch  the  borders  of  the  religious 
question  as  science  touches  the  borders  of  philos- 
ophy. The  boundary  between  them  is  incurved 
like  the  boundary  between  the  lands  of  a  continent 
and  the  waters  of  an  ocean,  with  a  cape  or  a  shoal 
jutting  out  here,  and  a  bay  or  an  inlet  running  in 
there.  They  penetrate  each  other's  borders  at  cer- 
tain points  as  science  and  philosophy  dovetail  each 
other ;  like  the  interpenetrations  of  arithmetic, 
algebra  and  geometry.  Indeed,  the  edges  of  all 
sciences  are  serrated.  JSTo  science  is  a  cube.  There 
are  certain  marginal  religious  questions  which  are 
within  the  perview  of  the  philosopher  and  are 
amenable  to  philosophic  inquiry.  But  at  last,  phi- 
losophy reaches  a  terminal  point  in  the  direction  of 
religion  beyond  which  it  cannot  go  without  new 
appliances,  even  as  the  longest  cape  ends  at  last  in 
the  deep  sea,  where  land  travel  ends  and  sea  travel 
must  begin  if  there  is  farther  progress.  The  capes 
of  philosophy  run  far  out  into  the  ocean  of  theology, 

1  "  First  Principles,"  p.  88. 


82     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

and  no  man  can  ever  be  a  thorough  philosopher, 
and  philosophy  can  never  become  a  finished  system 
until  the  truth  is  known  concerning  these  questions 
which  lie  wrapped  within  the  mystery  of  religion. 
The  foot-paths  of  philosophy  lead  only  to  the  water's 
edge,  but  the  sand-bars  of  philosophy  extend  out 
into  the  deepening  tide  of  religious  mystery. 

Henry  Drummond,  in  speaking  of  the  geol- 
ogist and  the  Mosaic  Genesis,  says,  "Men  could 
find  out  the  order  in  which  the  world  was  made. 
What  they  could  not  find  out  was  that  God  made 
it.  To  this  day  they  have  not  found  out."  '  And 
yet  the  mind  is  inquisitive  until  it  does  find  out. 
The  philosophers  have,  without  exception,  been 
great  meddlers  with  religion.  Somehow,  like  chil- 
dren, they  have  loved  to  play  in  the  lapping  waters 
of  the  religious  tide  while  yet  refusing  to  make  an 
experiment  at  swimming  or  take  boat  and  theolog- 
ical pilot  for  sail  on  the  great,  deep  waters.  A 
catalogue  of  the  dissertations  upon  religion  by  the 
philosophers  would  fill  a  library.  There  is  not  one 
of  them  which  has  not  written  a  book  or  a  chapter 
dealing  with  religion;  and  yet  they  have  not 
"  found  out "  God.  That  is  the  theologian's  task- 
no,  the  Christian's  privilege  and  experience,  which 
the  philosopher  cannot  know  without  the  Chris- 
tian's equipment.  And  yet,  who  will  say  that  the 
mystery  of  this  world  is  solved  by  the  man  who 
is  ignorant  of  the  Creator  of  its  matter  and  the 
Author  of  its  laws  ? 

t^  "  Life  of  Drummond,"  by  George  Adam  Smith,  p.  262. 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope?    83 

Tyndall  will  be  to  some  an  unexpected  corrobora- 
tor of  Drummond :  "  While  thus  making  the 
largest  demand  for  freedom  of  investigation — 
while  I  consider  science  to  be  alike  poAverful  as  an 
instrument  of  intellectual  culture  and  as  a  minis- 
trant  of  the  material  wants  of  men ;  if  you  ask  me 
whether  it  has  solved,  or  is  likely  in  our  day  to 
solve,  the  problem  of  this  universe,  I  must  shake 
my  head  in  doubt.  You  remember  the  first  E^a- 
poleon's  question,  when  the  Savans  who  accom- 
panied him  to  Egypt  discussed  in  his  presence  the 
origin  of  the  universe  and  solved  it  to  their  own 
apparent  satisfaction.  He  looked  aloft  at  the 
starry  heavens  and  said  :  '  It  is  aU  very  well,  gen- 
tlemen ;  but  who  made  these  ? '  That  question  still 
remains  unanswered,  and  science  makes  no  attempt 
to  answer  it.  As  far  as  I  can  see  there  is  no  quality 
in  the  human  intellect  which  is  fit  to  be  applied  to 
the  solution  of  the  problem.  It  entirely  transcends 
us.  The  mind  of  man  may  be  compared  to  a  mu- 
sical instrument  with  a  certain  range  of  notes,  be- 
yond which  in  both  directions  we  have  an  infini- 
tude of  silence.  The  phenomena  of  matter  and 
force  lie  within  our  intellectual  range,  and  as  far 
as  they  reach  we  will  at  all  hazards  push  our  in- 
quiries. But  behind  and  above  and  around  all,  the 
real  mystery  of  this  universe  lies  unsolved,  and  as 
far  as  we  are  concerned,  is  incapable  of  solution. 
Fashion  this  mystery  as  you  will ;  with  that  I  have 
nothing  to  do.  But  let  your  conception  of  it  not 
be  an  unworthy  one.     Invest  that  conception  with 


84     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

your  highest  and  holiest  thought,"  etc'     He  faced 
the  ocean  but  lacked  equipment  to  embark. 

The  scientist  and  the  philosopher  alike  confess 
that   they  "  cannot   by   searching  find   out  God." 
And  still  the  essential  element  of  their  problem  of 
the  universe   is   God,  and  the   most   excruciating 
ao-ony    they    know    is    the    desire  to   find  Him. 
Therefore,  it  must  inevitably   come  to  pass  that 
men  will  be  driven  to  investigate  the  accessible 
approaches  to  God.     Their  devotion  to  philosophy 
and  their  craving  for  highest  knowledge  will  take 
them  beyond  their  depth  and  they  will  be  com- 
pelled to  call  to  their  assistance  the  help  which 
religion  provides.     The   solution   of  the  riddle  of 
the    universe    which    man  has  undertaken  is   so 
locked  up  with  divine  Cause,  religious  facts  and 
spiritual  phenomena,  that  he  must  investigate  the 
religious  question.     Of  course,  he  will  do  this  with 
scientific  thoroughness  and  by  a  rational  method— 
the  experimental.     This  is  wherein  the  intellectual 
progress  of  the  world  is  leading  to  a  consideration 
of  the  question  of  one  religion  for  all  men. 

2.  One  religion  for  all  men  is  necessary  to  social 
progress.  The  religion  of  any  people  is  invariably 
a  chief  promoter  of  social  advancement  or  the 
principal  hindrance  to  it,  and  social  conditions  are 
everywhere  determined  by  religion  chiefly.  Prof. 
Benjamin  Kidd  has,  perhaps,  traced  the  laws 
which  govern  social  progress  with  closer  precision 
than  any  other,  and  he  finds  that  religion  has  been 

1  "  Fragmenta  of  Science,"  pp.  79-80. 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope  ?    85 

and  is  the  controlling  factor  in  shaping  human 
society.  Keviewing  the  wonders  of  metropolitan, 
industrial  and  commercial  life,  with  modern  institu- 
tions, political  and  social  customs,  and  the  varied 
activities  of  our  civilization,  he  j)oints  to  churches, 
temples,  cathedrals  and  the  crowds  that  frequent 
them,  the  doctrines  there  preached,  presenting  the 
religions  of  mankind,  and  remarks  upon  these  last 
that  they  undoubtedly  constitute  "  one  of  the  most 
persistent  and  characteristic  features  of  human 
society,  not  only  in  past  ages  but  at  the  present 
day."  He  says  that,  "  The  history  of  our  Western 
civilization  is  largely  but  the  life-history  of  a  pecul- 
iar form  of  religion  and  deep-rooted  social  move- 
ments connected  therewith."  He  tells  us  that  we 
are  in  reality  living  in  the  midst  of  a  civilization 
where  the  habits,  customs,  laws  and  institutions  of 
the  people  are  influenced  in  almost  every  detail  by 
religion,  and  even  those  who  profess  to  repudiate 
the  teachings  of  religion  are  almost  as  directly 
affected  as  other  sections  of  the  community,  and 
whatever  their  private  opinion  may  be,  they  are 
quite  powerless  to  escape  the  influence  of  the  pre- 
vailing tone  and  the  developmental  tendencies  of 
society  in  which  they  live.  "  In  the  religious  be- 
lief s  of  mankind  we  have  .  .  .  the  characteristic 
feature  of  our  social  evolution."  Again,  "Every- 
where these  beliefs  are  associated  with  conduct 
having  a  social  significance."  The  most  original 
and  thoughtful  part  of  Professor  Kidd's  remarkable 
book  is  that  which  contends  that  the  social  develop- 


86     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

ment  of  the  race  has  been  carried  on  not  by  achieve- 
ments of  reason,  but  by  the  subordination  of  reason 
to  religious  authority.  "  The  motive  power  in  this 
struggle  has  undoubtedly  been  supplied  by  his  many 
religious  beliefs." '  Professor  Hyde  says  that, 
"  Keligion  is  the  largest  aspect,  the  universal  form 
of  our  social  relationship."  ^  "  The  history  of  the 
world,"  says  Principal  AVace,  "  would  appear  to  be 
in  a  great  measure  a  history  of  the  manner  in  which 
religious  ideas,  often  of  an  apparently  abstract  and 
subtle  character,  can  determine  the  future  of  whole 
races  and  vast  regions  of  the  earth."  ^ 

A  convincing  truth  of  all  this  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  every  great  religion  has  produced  its  own 
peculiar  cast  of  society.  No  amount  of  wealth  or 
culture  can  be  made  to  separate  one  class  of  men 
and  women  from  another  so  entirely  in  their  social 
intercourse  and  customs  as  different  religions — as  a 
Chinaman's  religion,  for  instance,  separates  him 
socially  from  the  Englishman  and  vice  versa. 
Their  respective  religions  have  directly  produced 
their  social  habits  and  forms,  and  wherever  these 
religions  extend,  the  same  social  life  characterizes 
their  respective  devotees,  modified  only  as  religion 
is  modified  or  modifies  it.  No  religion  is  simply 
an  organization,  but  as  an  organizer,  and  the  great 
religions  organize  on  a  gigantic  scale. 

A  common  religion  for  mankind  is  then  required 

^See  Kidd's  "Social  Evolution,"  Chap.  5. 

5 "Outline  of  Social  Theology." 

*  "  Foundations  of  Faith,"  pp.  198-199. 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope?    87 

to  facilitate  and  assure  progress  towards  social 
unity.  All  matters  which  divide  men  have  their 
roots  in  the  religious  question.  The  strifes  of  men 
are  set  in  religious  principles,  either  in  the  lack  of 
the  true  or  the  exposition  of  the  false.  The  blood- 
iest wars  that  have  stained  the  pages  of  human  his- 
tory have  been  incited  by  religious  antipathies. 
The  most  diabolical  inhumanities  that  have  delac- 
erated  society  have  been  perpetrated  under  the 
frenzy  of  religious  bigotry  and  fanaticism.  Of  all 
feuds  between  nations,  classes  and  communities 
none  have  been  quite  so  fierce  as  those  whose  fires 
were  fed  by  religious  prejudice  and  jealousy.  ]^o 
cruelty  is  quite  equal  to  religious  persecution.  JS'o 
hate  is  so  deep,  no  hostility  so  unrelenting,  no 
quarrel  so  interminable  as  that  in  which  religious 
differences  are  involved.  Wherever  the  home,  what- 
ever the  colour  of  its  skin  or  the  kind  of  language 
spoken,  the  other  nation  is  "  heathen  "  if  it  have 
not  our  religion.  In  nothing  else  is  another  nation 
so  execrable  as  in  its  religion ;  not  even  its  vices 
are  quite  so  hateful  as  its  creed.  Primarily  more 
effort  is  made  to  convert  others  from  their  religion 
than  from  their  sins. 

But  while  the  different  religions  are  the  chief 
causes  of  social  disunion  and  the  most  unsurmount- 
able  obstacles  to  amicable  social  relations,  a  noble 
religion  is,  on  the  other  hand,  the  strongest  bond  of 
unity  and  fraternity  between  men,  and  the  most 
effective  equalizer.  There  is  no  tie  between 
different    families,   classes    and  races  of  men  so 


88     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

strong,  so  genuine  and  so  enduring  as  that  of  a 
common  and  genuine  religious  faith,  hope  and 
work.  So  long  as  there  are  religions  there  can  be 
no  perfect  society.  Universal  human  fraternity  is 
an  impossible  dream  without  a  common  religion 
for  all  races  of  men ;  and  yet  such  a  fraternity  is 
a  dream  which  will  be  cherished  till  it  is  fulfilled. 
Lofty  souls  there  will  always  be  who  plan  and 
labour,  plead  and  long,  pray  and  look  for  a  social 
fraternity,  a  human  brotherhood  until  it  is  realized. 
Towards  this  realization  the  common  children  of 
one  heavenly  Father,  with  a  common  destiny,  are 
painfully,  slowly  but  surely  finding  their  way,  led 
by  a  few  single-hearted  seers.  Says  James  Freeman 
Clark :  "  In  fact  the  growing  interest  of  human 
beings  in  each  other  is  one  of  the  most  striking 
marks  of  civilization."  '  To  hasten  the  day  of  the 
ideal  social  fellowship  is  the  task  of  the  new  science 
of  sociology,  and  its  success  in  accomplishing  it 
depends  upon  the  recognition  it  gives  to  religion  as 
a  hindrance  and  a  help  ;  for  nothing  can  help  it  so 
much  as  religion  and  nothing  is  so  inimical  to  it  as 
religion. 

Social  purity  as  well  as  social  unity  is  a  necessary 
achievement,  and  it  is  promoted  chiefly  by  religion. 
So  progress  towards  this  goal  requires  the  selection 
of  one  religion — the  best  of  them  all.  The  moral 
code  of  society,  its  esthetic  ideals,  personal  and 
domestic  purity,  the  modesty  and  purity  of  the 
home,  the  value  and  sanctity  of  human  life,  the 

»  Clark's  "Ten  Great  Religions,"  Vol.  II,  p.  39. 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope  ?    89 

rights  of  woman  and  the  security  of  childhood  are 
matters  of  social  morality  involved  in  the  religious 
question.  A  religion  is  an  aggregation  of  ethical 
beliefs.  Such  are  these  that  they  become  the  source 
and  motors  of  individual  daily  actions  and  of  social 
morality.  Bishop  Wescott  expresses  the  conclusions 
of  philosophy  and  broad  observation  when  he  says 
that,  "  Conduct  in  the  long  run  corresponds  with 
belief  "  and  "  patient  investigation  will  show  that 
no  doctrine  can  be  without  a  bearing  on  action. 
.  .  .  The  influence  of  dogma  will  be  good  or 
bad.  .  .  .  Every  religion  and  every  sect  of 
religion,  has  its  characteristic  form  of  life."  ^ 

The  logical  and  psychological  order  of  a  social  ref- 
ormation is  first  a  reformation  of  religious  beliefs, 
then  the  reformation  of  the  individual  and  society. 
It  was  tutoring  in  heathen  religion  which  fattened 
Rome  in  voluptuous  iniquity  for  national  slaughter, 
and  which  led  Pliny  to  proclaim  that  suicide  was  the 
best  gift  that  the  gods  had  ever  given  to  men,  as  it 
was  the  despair  of  infidelity  that  made  the  famous 
Frenchman  the  arch-apostle  of  the  same  nefarious 
ethics  and  multiplied  this  sullen  sin  among  one 
of  the  naturally  happiest  nations  in  the  world. 
Seneca  tells  us  that  there  were  women  in  Rome 
who  counted  their  ages  by  the  number  of  husbands 
they  had  married,  a  fame  only  eclipsed  by  men  in 
heathen  India  to-day  who  have  more  wives  than 
they  have  had  birthdays.  Against  the  social  life 
of  other  religions,   Christianity  was  early  set  in 

"  The  Gospel  of  Life,"  pp.  48-57. 


go     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

contrast.  It  indicated  the  superlative  superiority 
of  Christian  social  life  and  the  white  purity  of  the 
Christian  domestic  life  in  contrast  with  that  which 
surrounded  it  when  the  pagan  sophist,  Libanius, 
exclaimed  :  "  What  women  these  Christians  have  !  " 
Those  women  were  made  by  the  Christian  religion 
out  of  heathen  material.  The  state  of  society  in 
India  and  China  to-day  is  a  religious  product,  and 
the  social  casts,  discriminations  and  debasements 
are  expositions  of  the  religious  creeds  of  these 
nations  and  can  never  be  changed  until  their 
religions  are  changed — exchanged.  More  zeal  is 
consumed  in  the  effort  to  convert  them  from  their 
religions  than  from  their  vices  because  their  vices 
flourish  on  their  religions.  America's  social  life  is 
mainly  a  product  of  America's  prevailing  religion, 
though  a  product  in  process  of  making.  Let 
Christianity  have  its  way  with  all  that  is  unchristlike 
in  "  low  society"  and  "  high  society  "  and  what  we 
have  to-day  is  but  "  a  stammering  which  to-morrow 
will  be  speech,  and  the  day  after  to-morrow  will  be 
gospel,"  "  known  and  read  of  all  men." 

This  social  progress  so  profoundly  aifected  and 
so  certainly  determined  by  religion,  includes  even 
the  most  material  aspects  of  our  civilization. 
"  Labour,"  "  industry,"  "  commerce,"  "  politics," 
are  words  which  represent  what  are  commonly 
supposed  to  be  the  most  purely  secular  phases  of 
life.  Furthermore,  because  of  their  immediate 
temporal  character,  they  engage  a  lively  and 
popular    interest.     The  evils    which   beset   these 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope?    gi 

phases  of  modern  life,  the  problems  which  they 
raise  for  solution  and  the  necessity  for  that  solution 
are  readily  recognized.  There  is  scarcely  a  sheet 
of  paper  printed  that  does  not  deliver  an  opinion 
on  these  "  live  questions."  Progress  towards  right 
and  righteous  adjustment  of  these  workaday 
affairs  is  one  of  the  loudest  demands  of  the  times. 
The  terminology  designating  these  meat  and  bread, 
life  and  death  questions  is  interminable.  "  Child- 
labour,"  "  trusts,"  "  unions,"  "  sweat-shops," 
"  strikes,"  etc.,  are  terms  which  hint  at  questions 
that  fairly  tingle  with  vital  interest  for  all  classes. 
They  mark  evils  which  pinch  the  toe  of  flesh,  hence 
call  forth  a  quick  protest  and  a  hurried  prescription. 
But  are  not  these  fundamentally  religious  questions  ? 
Does  not  all  e\dl  have  its  tap-root  in  the  soil  which 
it  is  the  business  of  religion  to  cultivate  ?  A  ques- 
tion of  right  may  always  be  resolved  into  a  question 
of  righteousness,  and  the  essence  of  wT:-ong  is  always 
sin.  And  righteousness  and  sin  are  always  matters 
which  belong  distinctly  to  religion  as  the  sole 
arbiter.  Politicians  and  legislators  may  poultice 
these  social  ills  as  they  will  but  they  cannot  be 
cured  until  the  seat  of  the  disease  is  reached,  and 
this  is  the  work  of  religion — to  be  aggravated 
by  a  false  religion,  to  be  eradicated  by  the  true  one. 
The  cure  lies  in  giving  health  to  social  organisms 
rather  than  shape  to  social  organizations.  There  is 
a  manifest  progress  towards  a  general  recognition 
of  this.  "We  are  beginning  to  hear  from  many 
quarters  that  the  social  question  is  at  the  bottom 


92     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

a  religious  question."*  "Men  cannot  come  as  in- 
dividuals into  right  relations  with  God  without  also 
comincr  into  rit^ht  relations  with  one  another. 
There  is  no  right  sociology  which  is  not  religious, 
and  there  is  no  religion  which  is  not  sociological."  ^ 

There  may  be  good  ground  for  lament  that  the 
sacred  is  being  secularized,  that  worldliness  is 
getting  into  religion,  but  there  is  also  reason  to 
rejoice  that  the  secular  is  becoming  sacred,  that 
religion  is  getting  into  the  world.  No  great  prob- 
lem of  labour,  finance  or  politics  can  be  solved 
without  the  help  of  religion  and  men  are  finding  it 
out. 

But  no  less  in  its  nature  is  the  problem  incapable 
of  solution  than  is  the  society  which  it  affects  in- 
capable of  higher  development  until  a  religion  has 
been  found  ample  enough  to  embrace  all  its  parts 
and  adapted  to  all  its  relations.  Keligion  has  its 
own  universal  aspects,  and,  besides,  is  a  part  of  the 
whole  sociology.  The  progress  of  society  is  de- 
pendent upon  a  religion  which  can  compass  the 
whole  of  life  and  bind  all  its  parts  into  a  unity. 
The  individual  must  be  saved  wholly  and  his  life 
provided  for  fully.  Human  nature  cannot  be 
saved  in  sections.  Eeligion  must  provide  for  man's 
life  on  Monday  as  well  as  for  his  worship  on  Sun- 
day. The  calendar  of  the  upright  life  embraces 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  holy  days.  The 
silken  cord  of  the  sacred  must  run  through  all  the 


1  Kidd's  "  Social  Evolution,"  p.  14. 
2  Outlook,  Oofc.  18,  1902,  p.  416. 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope  ?    93 

week  and  every  task  given  to  man.  At  its  core  all 
life  must  be  the  same.  And  the  world  is  calling 
for  a  religion  which  shall  meet  these  needs  of  man 
and  mankind.  A  religion  is  wanted  which  is  uni- 
versal and  synthetic.  It  must  be  more  than 
worship  ;  it  must  include  prayer,  praise,  doctrine, 
morality,  the  ethics  of  commerce  and  industry  and 
domestic  and  social  principles  which  teach  men  the 
art  of  living  together.  Already  nations  are  in  such 
elbow-touch  that  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  guaran- 
tee the  moral  health  of  one  nation  independent  of 
all  others,  and  there  can  be  no  complete  religious, 
moral  or  social  redemption  of  one  without  the 
redemption  of  all.  What  was  always  true  of  men 
is  now  true  of  nations,  no  one  liveth  to  itself. 

3.  There  is  one  other  demand  for  one  religion 
for  mankind  which  must  be  recognized  and  most 
of  all  must  be  reckoned  with.  It  is  the  demand 
which  the  religious  impulse  makes.  If  the  weight 
of  this  shall  at  present  be  admitted  by  but  one 
class,  it  will  be  by  this  class  considered  the  most 
imperative  of  all.  The  Christian  will  always  be 
impelled  towards  universal  conquest  for  his  faith. 
It  is  an  irrepressible  impulse  with  him  to  have  all 
men  believe  what  he  believes.  This  is  what  has 
been  called  ''  the  art  of  compulsion  for  souls,"  and 
marks  the  highest  Christian  altruism.  The  Chris- 
tian's faith  is  the  best  thing  he  has  to  give  another, 
and  the  first,  the  strongest  impulse  of  his  nature  is 
to  impart  and  disseminate  it.  It  prompts  the  first 
evangelical  act  and  is  at  the  root  of  all  evangelistic 


94     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

and  missionary  work.  It  feeds  all  missionary  zeal 
and  it  is  the  motive  of  all  missionary  sacrifice.  No 
intelligent  Christian  can  be  entirely  peaceful  so 
long  as  one  man  holds  a  creed  radically  differing 
from  his.  For  one  to  be  wrong  in  his  religious  be- 
lief involves  consequences  so  grave  that  a  good 
man  cannot  bear  the  thought  of  his  neighbour  en- 
tailing them.  He  finds  his  religion  the  surest 
source  of  happiness,  but  he  cannot  be  fully  happy 
until  everybody  else  is  offered  the  like  happiness. 
He  cannot  fully  enjoy  his  own  salvation  until  every- 
body else  is  saved.  To  pass  his  religious  experience 
on  to  others  becomes  his  passion. 

This  earliest  conscious  experience  of  the  converted 
soul  increases  in  strength  and  controlling  power 
with  the  growth  of  the  religious  life.  In  Christian- 
ity at  large  it  increases  with  advancement  in  purity 
and  enlightenment  in  Christian  faith.  So  strong 
already  has  become  this  spontaneous  force  in  Chris- 
tianity that  no  power  on  earth  could  long  repress 
it ;  and  the  tide  is  rising  every  hour.  First  to  the 
ankles,  then  to  the  knees  and  now  to  the  loins,  soon 
it  will  be  a  river  that  cannot  be  passed  over  (Ezek. 
xlvii.  5).  To  the  intelligent  Christian  there  is  no 
more  sacred  obligation  than  this,  that  having 
availed  himself  of  Christ's  grace,  he  should  ally 
himself  with  His  purpose.  This  impulse  can  never 
be  satisfied  nor  subdued  until  all  men  are  brought 
around  to  a  common  faith.  Unless,  therefore, 
Christianity  shall  change  fundamentally  and  exper- 
imentally it  will  at  last  accomplish  the  prodigious 


Is  One  Religion  a  Reasonable  Hope?    95 

task  of  converting  the  world  to  one  religion.  And, 
as  already  shown,  this  characteristic  is  becoming 
more  marked  instead  of  fading.  Prophecy  bright- 
ens. Never  before  did  Christianity  so  widely  pub- 
lish itself  as  a  candidate  for  universal  favour  and 
never  has  it  mustered  such  forces,  controlled  such 
influence  and  put  forth  such  general  and  determined 
efforts  for  the  accomplishments  of  this  purpose. 
The  magnitude  of  the  task  is  realized  as  never  be- 
fore and  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its  accom- 
plishment are  more  fully  recognized ;  but  instead 
of  being  daunted  the  conductors  of  the  enterprise 
have  been  spurred  to  greater  deeds  and  greater 
daring.  It  is  the  growth  of  courage  and  practical 
wisdom  in  handling  this  world-enterprise  that  has 
given  birth  to  great  convictions  and  great  effort  in 
all  departments  of  Christian  missions. 

The  conviction  grows  at  remarkable  pace  that  in 
our  domestic  missionary  work  we  sustain  a  vital  and 
essential  relation  to  this  universal  enterprise  and  that 
in  pastoral  duty,  Christian  training,  state  and  home 
missions,  we  are  creating  a  base  and  source  of  sup- 
plies for  this  enterprise,  and  that  we  have  here  a 
task  of  equal  importance  with  the  remotest  out- 
reach of  missions  and  one  which  we  must  perform 
faithfully  and  on  a  great  scale.  The  vision  of  mis- 
sionary statesmen  and  generals  is  the  enlistment  of  a 
missionary  army  on  the  home  field  and  the  creation 
here  of  resources  to  support  it  at  the  front  until  the 
nations  shall  acknowledge  Jesus  the  successor  of 
Buddha  and  Mohammed.     The  campaign  is  to  be 


96     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

carried  to  a  successful  conclusion.  AU  men  may 
get  ready  to  make  a  choice  of  a  religion,  for  the  is- 
sue is  at  the  door. 

There  are  in  many  quarters  outside  of  Christian- 
ity signs  of  an  intense  craving  for  the  unity  of 
faith  among  the  races  of  men.  It  is  coming  to  a 
conscious  degree  of  intensity  among  all  peoples  and 
all  classes.  Parliaments  and  congresses  of  religion, 
common  in  these  new  times,  show  the  breadth  and 
trend  of  the  religious  sentiment  towards  the  settle- 
ment of  present  religious  disagreements  and  ulti- 
mate religious  unity.  The  fundamental  Christian 
doctrines  must  constitute  the  terms  of  the  peace  com- 
pact at  home  and  the  conditions  of  alliance  abroad. 
They  constitute  a  distinctive  message  which  we 
must  sound  throughout  the  homeland  and  resound 
through  all  the  world  until  in  the  bonds  of  one 
faith  the  scattered  races  of  men  shall  be  united  in 
a  common  and  holy  religious  brotherhood.  In  the 
following  pages  we  set  forth  what  Ave  take  to  be 
these  distinctive  elements  of  the  universal  faith. 


PART  II 


A  SELF-VERIFYING  REVELATION  FROM  GOD— 
THE  OLD  AND  NEW  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES 

THE  Scriptures  contain  and  certify  the 
Christian  doctrines.  They  are,  as  Dr. 
Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  says,  "  the 
source  and  casket  of  the  universal  elements  of  the 
Christian  religion."  ^  And  more,  they  give  a  self- 
evidencing  disclosure  of  their  divine  authorship- 
Christians  offer  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  as  the 
true  religious  creed  and  appeal  to  the  Bible  as 
authority  for  them.  They  set  up  the  claun  for 
these  peculiar  doctrines  that  they  constitute  the 
absolute  religion,  and  for  this  religion  the  right 
to  universal  and  exclusive  dominion.  The  validity 
of  such  claims  depends  upon  the  proof  which  the 
Bible  can  furnish  of  being  the  inspired  word  of 
God,  a  claim  which  it  makes  for  itself  with  tireless 
repetition.  If  it  cannot  bear  an  investigation  into 
its  own  character  and  furnish  substantial  evidence 
of  its  inspiration,  and  of  being  a  well  authenticated 
revelation  from  God,  the  case  will  go  hard  for 
these  doctrines  and  the  claims  which  we  make  for 
them.  Therefore,  we  may  well  face  the  question  : 
Does  the  Bible  possess  internal  evidence  of  being  a 

^  "  The  Uciversal  Elements  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  p.  236. 

99 


100    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

supernatural  revelation  ?  Does  its  contents  verify 
its  claims  that  it  is  divinely  inspired  ?  As  F.  D. 
Maurice  says  ;  "  The  question  is  whether  we  hold  a 
system  of  opinions  or  a  revelation  from  God." 
These  questions  may  be  answered  with  directness 
and  confidence.  The  Bible  does  contain  in  itself 
conclusive  proof  that  it  is  a  supernatural  revelation. 
Christians  can  afford  to  have  that  question  and  its 
answer  sifted.  The  Bible  is  not  the  only  book  that 
makes  this  claun,  but  it  is  the  only  one  that  proves 
it  to  be  true. 

The  self -verification  which  we  claim  includes,  of 
course,  the  Old  Testament ;  but,  let  it  be  noted, 
that  this  verification  does  not  mean  the  same  for 
the  Jew  as  for  the  Christian.  The  strongest  evi- 
dence which  the  Old  Testament  offers  of  its  divine 
authorship  confirms  Christianity  and  condemns  viere 
Judaism.  The  orthodox  Christian  believes  all  the 
Old  Testament  warrants  the  Jew  in  believing. 
Paul  before  Felix  said,  "  So  serve  I  the  God  of  our 
fathers,  believing  all  things  which  are  according 
to  the  law  and  which  are  written  in  the  prophets  " 
(Acts  xxiv.  14).  The  orthodox  Jew  must  either 
deny  the  inspiration  of  important  parts  of  his  Bible 
or  admit  that  they  have  failed  to  confirm  them- 
selves in  furnishing  a  fulfillment  of  their  own  proph- 
ecies, although  the  race  has  waited  more  than 
two  millenniums  for  such  fulfillment.  The  Old 
Testament  is  a  richer  book  for  the  Christian  than 
for  the  Jew,  because  Jesus  fulfills  and  ratifies  it. 
"  We  have  the  word  of  prophecy  made  more  sure  " 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  loi 

(2  Peter  i.  19,  E.  Y.).  The  Old  Testament  is 
more  a  Christian  Bible  than  a  Jewish  Bible.  We 
claim  more  of  it  than  the  Jew  can,  and  ours  is  its 
heart,  his  its  hull.  To  him  it  is  a  book  of  letters  ; 
to  us  a  book  of  life.  To  him  belongs  its  rites, 
forms,  ceremonies  ;  to  us  its  prophecies,  promises 
and  its  Prince  of  Peace.  For  the  Jew,  there  falls 
upon  it  the  shadow  of  unfulfilled  hope;  for  the 
Christian,  there  shines  in  it  the  radiance  of  a  Sun 
of  Eighteousness,  now  risen  with  healing  in  His 
wings.  His  heart  failing  him,  because  of  deferred 
hope,  the  Jew  has  at  last  given  up  his  sacrificial 
types  and  forms,  though  he  still  holds  in  his  nerve- 
less fingers  the  book  which  prescribes  them.  To 
him  the  Bible  appears  to  have  promised  what  it 
has  never  given.  A  Messiah  is  necessary  to  con- 
firm the  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament.  The 
credibility  of  it  is  established  for  the  Christian. 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John  validate  the  docu- 
ments of  Moses,  David,  Isaiah  and  Malachi.  The 
]S'ew  Testament  is  of  one  sort  with  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, cut  out  of  the  same  pattern  of  divine  inspira- 
tion. It  is  enriched  and  made  more  beautiful  by 
what  the  Old  Testament  contains  and  in  turn 
enriches  and  beautifies  that  first  Bible.  The  'New 
Testament  fulfills  and  brings  out  the  deep  religious 
meaning  of  the  Old  Testament.  If  I  may  so  say, 
it  fills  it  full  by  fulfilling  it.  As  Canon  Liddon 
has  pointed  out,  "  The  sense  of  the  Old  Testament 
became  patent  in  the  New  because  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  latent  in  the  Old."    The  Jew  has  no 


102    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

completed  Bible.  The  best  half  of  his  Bible  is  yet 
to  be  written  if  he  is  to  justify  his  faith  in  what  he 
now  accepts. 

Therefore,  the  Christian  can  claim  as  the  Jew 
cannot,  a  self -verifying  revelation  from  God.  As 
one  of  the  distinctive  and  fundamental  Christian 
doctrines,  this  fact  draws  an  absolute  boundary  be- 
tween Christianity  and  every  other  religion  in  the 
world.  It  is  as  peculiar  as  it  is  fundamental  to 
Christianity.  This  self-verification  does  not  con- 
sist in  one  item  or  two,  but  in  elaborate  corrobora- 
tive evidence.     We  review  some  of  it. 

1.  The  divine  inspiration  of  the  Bible  is  proven 
even  by  the  lowest  and  most  secular  test  possible, 
that  of  its  literary  form.  From  the  view-point  of  its 
purpose,  this  is  the  merest  incident.  The  purpose 
of  its  inspiration  was  not  to  make  literature.  The 
Bible  has  one  thing  in  view  from  Genesis  to  Reve- 
lation, and  that  is  to  so  present  the  mind,  the  will, 
the  work  and  the  love  of  God  to  a  sinning  race  as 
to  win  it  back  to  a  lost  birthright.  Inspiration  did 
not  contemplate  a  literary  classic.  The  men  who 
wrote  the  Bible,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  gave 
no  probability  of  making  a  classic  literature.  Prob- 
ably every  age  which  produced  one  of  these  thirty- 
six  books,  owned  men  who  were  recognized  as  the 
superiors  of  these  ^vriters  in  the  matter  of  literary 
qualification.  Now,  that,  with  another  purpose  in 
view  and  such  men  to  compose  it,  the  Bible  should 
at  last,  according  to  the  severest  and  most  compe- 
tent special  criticism,  be  found  to  be  the  highest 


A  Self-Verifying  Revelation  103 

form  of  literary  composition  down  to  our  own  time, 
we  offer  as  evidence  that  it  is  of  superhuman  ori- 
gin. Though  men  wrote  it,  God  dictated  it.  God 
chose  the  weak  things  to  confound  the  mighty. 
By  Him,  herdsmen  and  fishermen  were  able  to  pro- 
duce immortal  and  incomparable  literature.  Not 
only  did  they  surpass  the  nobility  and  culture  of 
their  own  times,  but  of  all  days  and  of  all  lands. 
Human  genius  has  been  outrivalled  in  letters  by 
men  who  never  saw  a  schoolhouse  nor  read  a  book 
until  they  wrote  one : 


"  We  search  the  world  for  truth;  we  cull 
The  good,  the  pure,  the  beautiful 
From  graven  stone  and  written  scroll 
From  all  old  flower  fields  of  the  soul ; 
And  weary  seekers  of  the  best, 
We  come  back  laden  from  our  quest 
To  find  that  all  the  sages  said 
Is  in  the  Book  our  mothers  read." 

("  Miriam,' '  by  Whittier.) 


The  brightest  lights  of  the  best  modern  literature 
own  the  Old  and  New  Testament  writers  their 
masters  and  acknowledge  the  Bible  to  be  human- 
ity's literary  masterpiece.  Prof.  J.  R.  Seely,  who 
certainly  has  no  superstitious  awe  of  the  Bible, 
speaks  for  himself  and  men  of  his  class:  "The 
greatest  book  of  individual  literary  genius  is  by  the 
side  of  it,  like  some  building  of  human  hand  beside 
the  Peak  of  Teneriffe/'  Those  who  have  read  Pro- 
fessor Moulton's  works  on  the  Bible  as  literature, 


104    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

or  have  read  the  Bible  itself  with  discrimination, 
possessing  a  knowledge  of  other  literature,  will  not 
gainsay  this  tribute.  Another  testunony,  that  of 
Wm.  De  Witt  Hyde  may  be  taken :  "  The  Bible 
can  no  more  again  be  equalled  or  surpassed  than 
the  ethics  of  Homer  or  the  statues  of  Phidias/' 
The  Lord  Bishop  of  Derry  and  Eaphoe  in  his  ex- 
position of  the  epistle  of  John,  has  cited  two  excel- 
lent illustrations  of  this  inability  of  highest  genius 
to  match  the  style  of  Scripture.  One  is  the  case 
when  Victor  Hugo,  in  "  Legende  des  Siecles,"  puts 
words  into  the  mouth  of  Christ  additional  to  those 
John  reports  and  exhibits  by  the  contrast  the  ob- 
viously exaggerated  and  factitious  hollowness  of 
the  imitation.  Where  Victor  Hugo  failed,  no  other 
modern  writer  need  try.  The  other  instance  is 
Shakespeare  in  his  description  of  Buckingham's 
noble  spirit  on  trial  in  Henry  VIII.  The  passage 
is  too  long  to  be  quoted,  and  need  not  be,  since  it 
is  accessible  to  all.  The  Bishop  sums  up  the  case 
thus :  "  Here  is  one  man  of  all  but  the  highest  rank 
in  dramatic  genius,  who  utterly  fails  to  invent  even 
one  sentence  which  could  be  possibly  taken  for  an 
utterance  of  our  Lord.  Here  is  another,  the  most 
transcendent  in  the  same  order  whom  the  human 
race  has  ever  known,  who  tacitly  confesses  the  im- 
possibility of  representing  a  character  which  shall 
be  ^one  entire  and  perfect  chrysolite'  without 
speck  or  flaw."  * 

1  See  "King  Henry  VIII," and  "Expositor's  Bible,"  Epistle  of 
John,  pp.  94-95. 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  105 

There  is  no  accounting  for  this  eclipse  of  the 
world's  great  lights  except  upon  the  hypothesis 
that  the  men  who  wrote  the  Bible  were  superhu- 
manly  inspired.  To  these  worldly  geniuses  was 
given  a  sort  of  mental  inspiration ;  to  these  Biblical 
writers  was  given  this  and  a  spiritual  illumina- 
tion and  a  divine  revelation.  Their  inspu^ation 
qualified  them  to  make  known  the  revelation  and 
do  it  in  a  matchless  style. 

There  is  another  element  in  this  literary  form 
and  in  which  the  Bible  surpasses  all  other  books, 
and  which  again  gives  evidence  of  its  inspiration, 
namely  its  distinction  of  being  an  inspirer  of  books 
and  an  adornment  of  the  best  literature.  The 
Bible  is  the  best  and  the  inspirer  of  the  next  best. 
Many  of  the  great  classics  in  our  libraries  were  in- 
spired by  it.  The  "Inferno,"  "Paradise  Lost," 
"  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  themselves  great  sources  of 
literary  streams  which  have  refreshed  and  glad- 
dened the  minds  of  men  the  world  over,  bear  un- 
challenged internal  evidence  of  their  own  source. 
The  authors  received  the  divine  aiflatus  while 
brooding  over  the  pages  of  Inspiration.  There  are 
four  hundred  Bible  quotations,  it  is  said,  in  the 
poetry  of  Tennyson,  and  Shakespeare  is  coloured 
throughout  with  his  knowledge  and  use  of  the 
Scriptures.  Quotations,  allusions,  metaphors  and 
moral  maxims,  are  drawn  from  the  Scriptures,  and 
his  highest  reaches  of  style,  verbal  strength  and 
beauty  show  indebtedness  to  this  Book.  It  was 
Coleridge  (consider  the  authority)  who  said,  "  The 


lo6    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

intense  study  of  the  Bible  will  keep  any  writer 
from  being  vulgar  in  point  of  style."  This  pure 
fountain,  having  its  sources  in  God,  freshens  every 
stream  of  wholesome  literature. 

2.  When  the  circumstances  of  its  writing  are 
taken  into  account,  the  catholicity  of  the  Bible  is 
evidence  of  its  superhuman  origin.  Never  could 
have  been  chosen  men  more  likely  to  give  to  the 
world  a  narrow  and  bigoted  view  of  life  and  its  inter- 
ests, especially  religious  interests,  than  from  among 
the  Jews.  In  no  other  nation  was  racial  exclu- 
siveness,  provincialism,  and  sectarianism,  so  deeply 
marked  characteristics  of  a  people.  The  Jew  of 
ancient  times  was  as  provincial  as  the  modern  Jew 
is  cosmopolitan.  To  the  uninspired  Jew,  every  man 
of  every  other  race  was  a  Gentile  dog,  a  fit  ob- 
ject of  divine  wrath,  and  his  presence  a  defilement, 
while  the  Jews  were  divine  favourites,  and  God's 
religion  all  for  them.  This  catholicity  was  not  an 
evolution,  a  growth,  a  process,  by  which  these 
men  who  wrote  the  Scriptures  were  gradually  and 
finally  liberalized,  but  a  crisis,  effected  by  the 
enduement  which  prepared  them  to  write.  "  Dost 
thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ?  " 
is  the  measure  of  uninspired  Jewish  desire  and  ex- 
pectation in  the  days  when  the  New  Testament 
was  a-making.  The  kingdom  was  all  for  Israel. 
"  In  Christ  Jesus,  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek, 
bond  nor  free,  male  nor  female  "  is  the  measure  of 
inspired  Jewish  thought  in  the  same  period.  Until 
God's  revelation  came  to  him,  Simon  Peter's  view 


\ 


A  Self-Verifying  Revelation  107 

of  a  devout  Gentile  was  symbolized  by  things 
"  common  and  unclean."  Because  Peter  went 
among  the  Gentiles,  and  they  "  also  received  the 
word  of  God,"  even  the  Jewish  Christians  at  Jeru- 
salem called  him  to  account  and  "  contended  with 
him"  so  much  so  that  he  must  tell  them  "the 
Spirit  bade  me  go."  That  explains  his  escape  from 
his  Jewish  provmcialism.  It  was  only  after  they 
had  "assuredly  gathered  that  the  Lord  had 
called"  them  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  en- 
deavoured to  go  into  Macedonia,  the  distinctly 
Gentile  country. 

This  sweeping  comprehensiveness  and  all-in- 
clusiveness  of  the  Bible  is  one  of  the  marvels  of 
inspiration.  The  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  surveys  a 
larger  field  of  human  interest,  comprehends  the  / 

needs  of  all  classes,  conditions  and  races  of 
men,  is  adapted  to  universal  human  life  as  no  other 
book  ever  written  is.  Its  verbal  imagery  and 
illustrations  lend  themselves  readily  to  the  compre- 
hension of  all  qualities  of  mind,  degrees  of  intelli- 
gence, the  residents  of  every  land  and  age,  the 
people  of  every  tongue  and  environment.  The 
scope  of  sympathy  and  humanity,  the  breadth  of 
outlook  and  exact  adaptation  to  the  varied  wants 
of  human  society,  character  and  temperament,  the 
unconventional  fraternity  and  impartial  fellowship 
presented  in  this  charter  of  I^ew  Testament  Chris- 
tianity is  quite  without  parallel  in  the  whole  realm 
of  history  and  literature.  Translated  into  what- 
ever speech,  the  Bible,  we  are  told,  at  once  seems  a 


lo8    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

native  literature,  the  most  human  and  familiar 
book  in  the  house,  speaking  a  word  to  each  in- 
mate and  showing  a  most  marvellous  personal 
interest. 

This  catholicity  is  shown  in  the  New  Testament 
conception  of  the  vast  scope  of  the  Christian  enter- 
prise. That  these  humble  first  believers  should 
ever  have  gotten  it  into  their  heads  that  they  were 
founders  of  a  universal  spiritual  empire,  is  quite 
beyond  the  power  of  reason  to  believe,  had  they 
not  been  mightily  wrought  upon  by  some  external 
power.  We  might  as  well  be  expected  to  believe 
that  a  Hottentot  of  our  day  conceived  the  Hague 
Peace  Congress  or  inaugurated  the  international 
news  system.  Until  this  day,  even  this  day  of 
enlightenment,  only  the  most  spiritual  grasp  this 
vast  enterprise  and  give  life  and  money  to  it.  This 
gigantic  world-adventure,  about  which  these  New 
Testament  writers  speak  with  such  ease  and  con- 
fidence and  to  which  they  lend  themselves  so  en- 
thusiastically and  yet  work  so  practically,  lay 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  unaided  human  mind,  and 
specially  the  minds  of  men  who  had  never  seen  the 
great  world's  life,  never  crossed  its  great  seas,  seen 
its  great  cities,  nor  heard  nor  dreamed  of  modern 
steamships,  railroads,  telegraphy  and  printmg- 
presses.  None  of  these  things  were  at  hand  to 
broaden  their  conceptions  of  the  world  and  of  facili- 
tated missionary  effort.  They  had  great  thoughts 
and  great  plans,  because  God  gave  them  such.  We 
may  say  of  what  they  wrote : 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  109 

* '  Every  line  was  full  of  light 
Every  word  bedewed  with  drops  of  Love  divine, 
And  with  eternal  heraldry  and  signature  of  God  Almighty 
Stamped  from  first  to  last, ' ' 


Surely  there  is  no  other  solution  to  this  enigma. 
This  all-encompassing  quality  of  the  Scriptures, 
this  keyboard  containing  all  the  notes  of  hope, 
aspiration  and  minor  chords  of  personal  sin  and 
sorrow  of  all  men,  of  all  sinners  and  all  who  weep, 
with  a  solace  for  each ;  surely,  we  say,  only  God, 
the  maker  of  us  all,  could  have  given  the  world 
such  a  book.  Only  He  who  knows  all  men  and 
knows  us  as  we  do  not  know  ourselves  could  have 
touched  with  such  precision  all  the  chords  of  our 
being  and  grasped  the  magnitude  of  our  varied  and 
immeasurable  need.  These  catholic  elements  are]l  )<^ 
the  Book's  own  internal  and  indisputable  evidence  / 
that  it  is  from  God.  As  has  often  been  said,  it  is 
far  easier  to  believe  that  God  inspired  it  than  that 
such  men  "wrote  it  of  their  own  wisdom. 

3.  The  lofty  individual  and  social  morality  of 
the  Book  separates  it  from  all  other  ancient  litera- 
tures. The  classic,  philosophical  and  religious 
books  of  the  East  are  alike  filled  vnth  obscenity. 
Translations  of  even  the  religious  books  of  the  An- 
cient Orient  have  to  be  edited  and  expurgated  with 
a  free  hand  to  avoid  shocking  unduly  the  Christian 
reader ;  and  still  much  of  coarseness  remains  in  the 
best  translations.  The  lofty  and  beautiful  things 
found  in  some  of  these  books  are  not  sufficient  to 


110    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

redeem  them,  nor  for  a  moment  to  place  them  in 
comparison  with  the  Holy  Scriptm-es.  Prof.  Max 
Muller  translated  the  "  Sacred  Books  of  the  East  " 
for  scientific  purposes  and  yet  had  to  apologize  for 
omitting  passages  which  were  too  revolting  to  be 
put  into  modern  language.'  This,  be  it  remem- 
bered, is  the  case  with  the  religious  books  which 
are  the  only  formidable  rivals  of  the  Bible  for 
recognition  as  revelation.  To  the  same  effect. 
Professor  Chamberlain,  who  translated  the  Japa- 
nese "  Sacred  Books."  "  The  shocking  obscenity 
of  word  and  act  to  which  the  '  records '  bear  wit- 
ness is  another  ugly  feature.  .  .  .  The  whole 
language  of  literature  might  perhaps  be  ransacked 
for  a  parallel  to  the  native  filthiness  of  certain  pas- 
sages here."  The  Koran  sanctions  polygamy,  per- 
mits successive  divorces,  prescribes  that "  Whosoever 
transgresses  against  you  by  so  doing,  do  ye  trans- 
gress against  him  in  like  manner  as  he  has  trans- 
gressed against  you  ; "  "  Fight  for  the  religion  of 
God,"  and  contains  various  other  shocking  deflec- 
tions from  common  standards  of  morality  and  social 
order  which  show  a  vast  chasm  between  it  and  the 
Scriptures  which  enjoin  a  pure  heart  and  lift  up 
an  ideal  of  holiness  for  all  men  in  all  human 
relations. 

Whsit  makes  the  difference  ?  Simply  this :  one 
is  a  human  composition  of  the  flesh  fleshly,  though 
it  professes  inspiration  ;  the  other  is  inspired  of  God 
and  contains  its  own  evidences  of  this  fact  if  no 

1  See  "  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,"  Vol.  I,  Preface. 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  1 1 1 

profession  of  it  were  made.     It  is  not  human  for  it 
is  unlike  the  human  books. 

4.  But  the  Scriptures  contain  something  more 
than  ideal  morals.  There  is  constituent  in  them  a 
spiritual  and  moral  dynamic  which  makes  for  right- 
eousness and  which  sets  up  evidence  that  they  issue 
from  the  Source  of  moral  law  and  life.  They  not 
only  outclass  all  literature  in  exalted  moral  stand- 
ard, but  as  exalted  as  is  this  standard,  they  never- 
theless more  nearly  produce  character  in  agreement 
with  their  ideal  than  any  other  book.  As  great  as 
is  the  discrepancy  between  the  average  Christian 
life  and  the  Christian  Scriptures,  Christian  history 
has  been  and  Christian  society  to-day  is  adorned 
by  many  examples  of  life  and  conduct  which, 
since  these  OAvn  the  Scriptures  to  be  the  guide 
of  their  spiritual  life,  give  as  strong  evidence  of 
the  inspiration  of  those  Scriptures  as  do  the  high 
moral  ideals  of  Scriptures  themselves.  No  other 
book  has  stored  in  it  such  potential  moral  en- 
ergies, and  all  others  combined  have  not  let  loose 
in  the  world  such  uplifting,  energizing,  purifying 
influences  as  this  Book  has  poured  into  the  enfeebled 
constitutions  of  men  and  the  putrid  channels  of 
social  and  national  life.  Goldwin  Smith  says, 
"  Greece  rose  from  the  dead  with  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  her  hand."  Notwithstanding  all  her  cul- 
ture and  all  her  religion  and  divinities,  Greece  was 
in  moral  decay.  And  what  the  New  Testament  did 
for  her  it  can  do  for  the  dead  everywhere,  even  for 
those   whose  religions  are,   like  the   Greeks,  but 


1 1 2    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

funeral  rites  of  moral  life  and  hope.  The  effect 
produced  by  a  sincere  acceptance  of  the  Bible  is 
always  of  the  same  sort.  Never  a  man  nor  a  peo- 
ple lays  this  Book  to  heart  that  there  is  not  begun 
immediately  a  moral  ascent.  It  is  no  respecter  of 
persons ;  whether  Fiji  Islander,  or  the  scholar,  the 
moral  reprobate,  or  the  tender  maiden,  the  result 
is  the  same ;  all  fix  new  ideals,  live  to  larger 
purpose,  grow  better,  more   unselfish,  useful  and 

happy. 

The  Bible  actually  does  what  it  says  it  can 
do  and  works  into  men  its  own  ideals  and  their 
realization.  The  Word  of  God  is  not  only  pure 
but  it  is  powerful  (Heb.  iv.  12;  Prov.  xxx.  5). 
The  testimony  of  all  who  have  tried  it  is  that 
"Thy  word  hath  quickened  me"  (Psa.  cxix.  50). 
"  It  proves  its  own  inspiration  and  authority  by  its 
power  beyond  all  other  books  to  quicken  and  sus- 
tain the  lift  of  the  Spirit.  The  response  of  the  spirit 
in  the  reader  is  the  witness  to  the  presence  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  writers  and  their  words.  For  the 
power  to  beget  holy  and  unselfish  living,  the  power 
to  inspire  brave  and  faithful  service,  the  power  to 
impart  enthusiastic  and  devoted  love  to  God  and  to 
one's  fellow  men  ; — this  is  even  the  prerogative  of 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  infallible  proof  of  the  presence 
of  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life."  '  It  is  because  of 
this  quality  by  which  it  ministers  to  the  devout 
soul  that  Cowper  wrote : 

»  "Outlines  of  Social  Theology,"  by  Wm.  De  Witfe  Hyde,  pp. 
189-190. 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  113 

"The  cottager  who  weaves  at  her  door 
Pillow  and  bobbing  all  her  little  store, 
Just  knows,  and  knows  no  more,  her  Bible  true, 
A  truth  the  brilliant  Frenchman  never  knew  ; 
And  in  that  charter  reads  with  sparkling  eyes 
Her  title  to  a  treasure  in  the  skies." 


But  there  is  no  need  to  expand  this  point.  The 
low  moral  state  and  social  condition  known  by  every 
one  to  exist  in  non-Christian  lands  contrasted — 
they  cannot  be  compared — with  the  society  in  Chris- 
tian countries,  are  convincing  proof.  If  the  divine 
element  in  the  Scriptures,  which  more  than  all  else 
regulates  our  social  order,  be  denied,  then  these  who 
make  the  denial  must  furnish  an  explanation  of  this 
contrast.  And  there  is  no  exception  on  the  one  hand 
or  the  other.  In  every  land  heathenism  degrades 
and  Christianity  elevates.  Both  have  made  their 
experiments  on  differ ent  nations  and  on  the  same 
nations  cotemporaneously,  and  the  result  always 
emphasizes  the  contrast.  "  My  word  shall  not  re- 
turn unto  Me  void,  but  shaU  accomplish,  etc." 
Wherever  the  truth  of  Kevelation  has  been  sown, 
it  has  fertilized  the  minds  and  the  moral  lives  of 
men;  works  of  art,  literature,  invention  and  dis- 
covery, virtues  and  philanthropies,  deeds  of  charity 
and  the  finest  spiritual  graces,  have  appeared  to 
enrich  and  adorn  human  society  and  to  produce  a 
civilization  as  distinctive  as  the  Scriptures  them- 
selves are.  That  which  makes  men  good  and  the 
race  truly  and  permanently  happy  surely  comes 
from  God. 


114    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

But  this  class  of  evidence  has  another  interesting 
and  convincing  aspect.  The  edifying  power  of 
Christianity  in  the  hfe  of  a  people  and  the  im- 
provement of  moral  conditions  among  them  by  the 
moral  dynamic  resident  in  the  Scriptures  seems  to 
be  gauged  by  the  degree  of  accessibility  which  the 
people  of  professed  Christian  lands  have  to  the 
Scriptures.  In  Koman  Catholic  countries,  for  in- 
stance, the  Scriptures  are  not  freely  distributed 
among  the  masses,  and  they  are  not  encouraged  to 
cultivate  a  close  personal  acquaintance  with  them 
as  is  the  case  in  Protestant  countries ;  and  a  differ- 
ence in  intellectual,  social  and  moral  conditions  is 
the  consequence.  The  contrast  which  the  traveller 
observes  between  the  civilization  of  Protestant  and 
the  Papal  countries  is  only  surpassed  by  that  which 
he  observes  between  Christian  and  pagan  lands. 

This,  too,  is  a  rule  to  which  there  is  not  a  single 
exception.  No  matter  how  close  together  or  how 
widely  separated,  how  near  the  racial  kin  or  di- 
vorced by  ethnological  distinctions,  the  Roman 
Catholic  civilization  is  always  the  inferior  civihza- 
tion  in  comparison  with  the  Protestant.  The  ex- 
amples may  be  the  Philippine  Islands  and  the 
United  States,  or  the  State  of  Texas  and  its  door 
neighbour,  the  Eepublic  of  Mexico,  it  matters  not. 
The  Roman  hierarchy  produces  a  partial  and  in- 
complete Christian  civilization.  Macaulay  saw  this 
and  called  attention  to  it  long  ago  in  his  "  History 
of  England."  (See  his  first  volume.)  The  explana- 
tion is  chiefly  to  be  found  in  the  use  which  Protes- 


A  Self-Verifying  Revelation  1 1 5 

tants  and  Romanists  make  of  the  Word  of  God. 
While  showing  the  author's  inconsistent  logic,  the 
words  of  Sabatier  are  nevertheless  true :  "  The 
destiny  of  holiness  on  earth  is  irrevocably  linked 
with  the  destiny  of  the  Bible."  '  Gladstone,  with 
his  views  of  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  was  more 
consistent  in  saying :  "  My  only  hope  for  the  world 
is  in  bringing  the  human  mind  into  contact  with 
the  divine  Revelation." 

6.  The  unity  of  the  Scriptures  proves  that  be- 
hind their  verbal  composition  there  was  a  single 
controlling  mind.  Here  are  sixty-six  books,  a  cyclo- 
pedia of  religious  knowledge,  a  library  of  Christian 
literature,  written  by  at  least  sixteen  individuals 
representing  perhaps  as  great  a  variety  of  talent, 
temperament  and  training  as  could  be  found  and 
selected  out  of  various  periods,  embracing  at  least 
fifteen  hundred  years.  With  few  exceptions,  these 
writers  never  saw  each  other,  and  so  there  could 
have  been  no  agreement  or  collusion  to  shape  ex- 
pression one  after  the  other.  These  were  not  the 
product  of  one  educational  institution,  which,  if 
such  were  the  case,  might  account  for  some  though 
not  all  resemblances.  Without  exception,  they  were 
men  of  strong  personalities,  individualistic  in  men- 
tal habit  and  moral  courage.  They  spoke  amidst 
widely  different  conditions  and  each  was  a  voice  to 
his  own  generation,  suiting  his  message  to  his  times. 
They  were  not  imitators  nor  copyists.  And  yet, 
there  is  such  agreement,  such  harmony,  such  unity 

1  "  Religions  of  Authority,"  p.  xxix. 


/ 


ll6    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

in  diversity  as  is  found  only  in  the  works  of  God. 
A  "profound  intellectual  and  moral  conformity" 
exists  in  these  writings.  These  many  composi- 
tions constitute  a  perfect  symphony.  There  is  one 
orderly  and  tuneful  progression  ever  breaking  forth 
into  distincter  and  fuller  strains  from  the  first  note 
of  Genesis  to  the  sublime  and  glorious  finale  of 
Revelation.  And  the  unifying  theme  is  the  Son 
of  God,  the  Messiah  of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  of  the  New.  It  is 
His  presence  in  every  book  and  the  efforts  of  all 
the  writers  to  announce  His  day  that  constitutes 
the  controlling  and  symphonizing  note  of  the  in- 
spired Eevelation.  The  first  chord  struck  by  Moses 
is  in  anticipation  of  the  last  one  struck  by  John 
and  determined  what  that  last  note  must  be.  The 
whole  intervening  composition  keeps  to  that  first 
harmony  and  progresses  towards  that  climax.  The 
prophets  are  the  accompanyists  to  the  evangelists. 
Prophecy  and  gospel  balance  and  blend  in  the 
great  tune.  The  twenty-second  Psalm  and  the 
fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah  are  the  subdued  minor 
prelude  to  the  wailing  fortissimo  of  the  twenty- 
seventh  chapter  of  Matthew,  whose  deep  diapason 
made  the  solid  earth  tremble  and  rent  the  veil  of 
the  Temple  in  twain. 

This  book  is  the  world's  great  epic  of  religion. 
It  has  its  parts,  as  is  fitting  a  great  masterpiece, 
each  to  portray  a  particular  phase  of  the  tran- 
scendent theme  and  give  it  expression  and  j)roper 
relief,  but  the  most  discriminating  critic  pronounces 


A  Self-Verifying  Revelation  117 

the  whole  perfect  in  symmetry.    The  Pentateuch  is 
a  well  conceived  proem  to  what  follows,  as  Kevela- 
tion  is  a  perfect  climacteric  peroration  to  what  pre- 
cedes.    Each  main  division  fitly  introduces  its  suc- 
cessor and  supplements  its  predecessor.     There  is 
not  a  book  of  the  Canon  which  may  not  be  quoted 
by  the  preacher  to  enforce  or  illuminate  whatever 
other  of  these  books  he  may  be  elucidating.     In 
support  of  this  fact  and  as  proof  of  the  divine 
element  in  the  Scriptures,  Canon  Liddon  says  aptly : 
"  In  uninspired  literature  such  as  the  Greek  or  the 
English,  it  would  be  absurd  to  appeal  to  a  primitive 
analyst   or  poet  with  the  view  to  determine  the 
meaning  of  an  author  of  some  later  age."     This 
perfect   unity   in   such  marvellous  variety,   taken 
together  Avith  our  knowledge  of  the  multiplicity 
of  writers,  cannot  be  accounted  for  except  upon 
the  ancient  and  accepted  Christian  belief  that  the 
book  has  one  Author.     "  Every  Scripture  inspu-ed 
of  God  is  also  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof, 
for  correction  and  for  instruction  in  righteousness ; " 
"  for  no  prophecy  ever  came  by  will  of  man,  but 
men  spoke  from  God,  being  moved  by  the  Holy 
Spirit"  (2  Tim.  iii.  16  ;  2  Peter  i.  21). 

6.  Finally,  not  to  exhaust  the  evidence  and  yet 
to  be  conclusive,  the  information  which  the  Scrip- 
tures give  us  concerning  things  which  transcend  hu- 
man knowledge,  is  a  proof  of  then*  divine  Author- 
ship. This  book  is  as  much  at  home  when  it  talks 
about  angels  as  it  is  when  it  talks  about  men  ;  when 
it  tells  us  about  the  future  as  well  as  when  it  teUs 


ll8    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

us  about  the  past.  It  speaks  as  familiarly  of 
heaven  as  of  Jerusalem;  of  heaven's  mansions, 
their  beauty  and  the  joy  which  reigns  in  them,  as 
of  our  own  human  abodes  and  the  sickness  and  sor- 
row which  shadow  them. 

"As  little  children  lisp  and  tell  of  Heaven ; 
So  thoughts  beyond  their  thoughts  to  those  high  bards 
were  given. ' ' 

There  is  here  confident  assurance  concerning  mat- 
ters which  have  perplexed  all  the  philosophers  and 
after  which  they  are  still  guessing.  And  more- 
over, every  note  on  these  transcendent  themes  is 
found  to  be  so  true  whenever  human  knowledge 
and  experience  rise  high  enough  to  test  and  verify 
it  that  this  superhuman  element  is  more  and  more 
gaining  credibility.  Whenever  knowledge  and  cul- 
ture have  advanced  sufficiently  to  test  it,  the  Keve- 
lation  has  been  found  to  be  so  consistent  with  the 
findings  of  our  reason  and  the  experiences  of  our 
hearts,  a  conviction  of  trustworthiness  is  forced 
upon  the  reader.  And  there  is  here  no  sign  of  the 
extravagance  or  the  fabulous,  no  striving  after 
mere  startling  effect,  such  as  invariably  attaches  to 
uninspired  literature  in  which  an  attempt  is  made 
to  discuss  these  themes.  The  romantic  and  mytho- 
logical characteristics  which  disfigure  all  other 
sacred  books  are  wanting  here.  There  is  evident  re- 
straint when  Biblical  writers  tell  us  about  angelic 
beings,  the  spirit  world  and  the  manifestations  of 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  119 

divine  power.  Metaphor  and  h3rperbole  which 
colour  and  garnish  even  human  history  of  our 
heroes  and  their  deeds  of  valour,  are  discarded  in 
the  Scripture  narrative  of  miracles  and  divine 
manifestations. 

But  the  Scriptures  submit  themselves  to  veritable 
tests  whether  they  really  speak  with  knowledge, 
when  they  speak  on  high  themes.  For  instance, 
the  writers  have  written  much  about  what  was  fu- 
ture to  them  in  this  present  world,  as  well  as  that 
which  lies  within  that  larger  distant  future. 
"These  are  matters  lying  beyond  the  range  of 
unaided  human  knowledge  and  must  be  either 
a  fabrication  or  revelation."  '  Much  of  that  which 
was  once  prophecy  has  become  history;  perhaps 
much  the  larger  part  of  the  whole  period  covered 
by  prophecy  to  be  fulfilled  on  earth  has  already 
elapsed.  "What  is  the  answer  which  history  gives 
to  prophecy?  So  perfectly  has  the  undesigning 
but  faithful  historian  filled  in  the  prophet's  out- 
line, that  he  might  be  taken  for  the  latter's 
pupil.  The  literal  fulfilhnent  of  prophecy,  which 
the  "fullness  of  time"  has  already  completed, 
becomes  a  sure  ground  of  confidence  for  what 
remains  to  be  fulfilled.  And  as  time  passes,  his- 
tory continues  to  give  its  authentication  to  Scrip- 
ture. In  fulfillment  of  specific  prophecies  of  the 
Book,  nations  have  risen  and  fallen,  the  proud  have 
been  carried  into  captivity,  the  sites  of  great  cities 

1  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall,    "The  Universal  Elements  of   the 
Christian  Religion." 


120    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

have  become  waste  places  of  earth.  Such  facts 
bring  to  naught  that  which,  passing  for  scholarly 
criticism,  endeavours  to  class  these  prophecies  with 
ancient  oriental  divination  and  fortune-telling. 
There  is  absolutely  no  kinship  or  parallel  to  be  dis- 
covered. The  fulfillments  of  prophecy  forbid  that 
they  should  be  put  in  such  category.  These  fulfill- 
ments are  too  many  and  too  extraordinary  to  be 
thouefht  of  as  mere  coincidences.  The  Biblical 
writers  committed  themselves  to  great  and  momen- 
tous events  in  the  history  of  nations,  the  race  and 
the  world,  and  stake  their  veracity  on  their  fore- 
tellings.  Mighty  epochs  of  history  punctuate  the 
fulfillment  of  independent  and  successive  prophe- 
cies. 

Let  one  example  of  the  unerring  spirit  of  discern- 
ment of  future  events  characteristic  of  the  Scrip- 
tures suifice.  That  which  is  chief  of  all  and  to 
which  other  prophecies  are  but  as  side-lights,  is  suf- 
ficient in  itself.  The  principal  theme  of  prophecy  is 
Messianic  and  the  principal  history  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  the  hfe  of  Jesus.  That  history  and  the 
history  of  succeeding  Christian  centuries  so  cor- 
roborate and  confirm  the  truth  of  Old  Testament 
prophecy  as  to  close  the  whole  question  of  the 
superhuman  wisdom  of  the  Bible.  This  prophetic 
history  is  something  more  than  that  life  in  general 
outline.  It  enters  into  detail  and  gives  minute  par- 
ticulars. A  substantial  biography  of  Christ  could 
indeed  be  compiled  from  prophecies  uttered  in 
many  and  different  centuries  before  Christ  began 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  121 

His  earthly  course.  Moses'  foregleams  fit  into 
David's  poetic  rhapsodies  and  these  into  Isaiah's 
and  Micah's  narratives  as  consistent  parts,  each  add- 
ing to  the  portraiture  and  measure  of  the  stature 
of  Christ  as  a  vision  of  it  was  permitted  to  those 
who  long  before  His  birth  rejoiced  to  see  His  day, 
saw  it,  and  Avere  glad  (John  viii.  56).  His  luminous 
personality  shone  through  the  veil  of  centuries  and 
hearts  that  would  have  fainted  took  courage  at  a 
vision  of  Him,  and  out  of  their  joy  and  gladness 
these  separate  parts  of  a  consistent  and  consecutive 
narrative  were  "  written  in  the  law  of  Moses  and 
in  the  prophets  and  in  the  Psalms." 

This  volume  of  things  concerning  Him  were 
fulfilled  in  His  birth,  His  life,  His  deeds  and  His 
death  and  were  written  down  by  eye-witnesses  in 
unimpeachable  corroboration  of  that  prenatal  his- 
tory. Those  who  saw  Him  and  "  painted  Him  as 
He  was  "  left  us  a  picture  which  we  find  to  be  the 
exact  replica  of  that  which  prophets  painted  with 
such  colours  as  God  gave  them.  A  student  of 
Scripture  has  marked  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  Old  Testament  prophecies  concerning  Jesus 
which  were  literally  fulfilled  and  are  perfectly  con- 
firmed by  New  Testament  Scripture.  The  follow- 
ing are  a  few  of  these  prophecies.  The  correspond- 
ing New  Testament  history  will  readily  occur  to 
every  one :  Born  of  a  virgin  (Isa.  vii.  14) ;  At 
Bethlehem  (Micah  v.  2) ;  Entry  into  Jerusalem 
(Zach.  ix.  9) ;  Betrayed  by  a  friend  (Psa.  xli.  9) ; 
Forsaken  by  His  disciples  (Zach.  xiii.  7) ;  Sold  for 


122    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

thirty  pieces  of  silver  (Zach.  xi.  12) ;  Spit  upon  and 
scourged  (Isa.  1.  6) ;  Not  a  bone  broken  (Ex.  xii. 
46) ;  Given  gall  and  vinegar  (Psa.  Ixix.  21) ;  Gar- 
ments parted  and  lots  cast  (Psa.  xxix.  18) ;  Taunted 
for  non-deliverance  of  God  (Psa.  xxii.  8) ;  Mocked 
(Psa.  xxii.  Y) ;  Feet  pierced  (Psa.  xxii.  16) ;  Several 
particulars  of  His  trial,  sentence  and  death  (Isa.  1. 
3).  How  could  men  have  written  such  a  history  of 
Christ  centuries  before  His  birth  if  God  had  not  re- 
vealed these  things  to  them  ?  Nothing  which  can 
of  right  be  called  mental  sanity  will  attribute  these 
marvellous  corroborations  to  mere  accident  or 
chance.  There  is  no  other  instance  in  the  whole 
realm  of  literature  outside  of  the  Bible  of  such  per- 
fect and  minute  fulfillment  of  human  forecasts  of  in- 
dividual life,  acts  and  events.  In  no  other  instance 
is  history  written  before  it  is  made. 

But  there  is  still  another  class  of  facts  which 
transcend  unaided  human  powers  and  which  are  also 
so  set  forth  as  to  prove  the  presence  of  a  divine 
wisdom  in  their  prediction.  The  Bible  is  unique  as 
a  manual  of  prayer  and  the  sole  proprietor  of  cer- 
tain spiritual  experiences  which  are  imparted  to  the 
worshipper  in  answer  to  prayer.  It  gives  explicit 
instructions  by  which  its  theory  of  prayer  may  be 
tested  and  these  experiences  obtained.  "  Ask  and 
ye  shall  receive,"  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  These  are  clear  and 
straightforward  statements  which  any  one  can 
prove  for  himself  and  so  ascertain  whether  or  not 
the  Scriptures  are  what  they  claim  to  be,  the  very 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  123 

word  and  promise  of  God.  Literal  millions  of  the 
most  respectable,  truthful  and  trusted  people  now 
living  have  put  the  Book  to  test  in  these  matters,  and 
the  result  is  another  self -verification  of  the  divine 
inspiration  which  produced  them  and  now  resides 
in  them.  Millions  would  swear  in  any  court  on 
earth  that  they  had  by  following  the  instructions 
given  here  experienced  the  very  things  which  the 
Scriptures  promised.  To  refuse  credence  to  their 
testimony  would  be  to  invalidate  every  oath  of 
every  character  in  every  court  of  the  land.  If  the 
men  and  women  who  bear  this  testimony  cannot 
be  trusted  to  tell  the  truth,  then  certainly  we  can- 
not trust  anybody  to  tell  it.  There  is  more  in  the 
lives  of  these  men  to  corroborate  their  testimony 
and  more  testimony  can  be  secured  to  their  good 
character  to  give  weight  to  their  testimony  than 
any  other  class  can  produce.  This  fact  can,  there- 
fore, be  supported  by  the  strongest  du^ect  and  cir- 
cumstantial evidence. 

Now,  can  any  other  book  which  men  can  bring 
forward,  though  they  ransack  every  land  and  every 
library  on  earth,  make  such  claims  or  challenge  the 
claims  of  this  book  to  supreme  and  unique  preem- 
inence ?  Does  any  other  book  thus  prove  its  divin- 
ity ?  Against  this  testimony  which  the  Bible  gives 
of  its  own  inspiration  let  us  place  one  sentence 
written  by  a  true  and  good  man  who  has  spent  a 
quarter  century  studying  the  ethnic  faiths,  and  who 
loves  their  votaries  with  a  truly  Christlike  passion : 
*'In  the  ethnic  religions,  with  the  exception  of 


124    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

some  distant  and  indistinct  echoes  of  primitive  rev- 
elation, all  is  the  product  of  human  thought  and 
carries  with  it  the  evidences  of  earthly  origin." ' 
All  other  books  contain  their  own  evidence  of 
their  human  source;  the  Bible  is  a  self -verifying 
revelation  from  God.  The  great  and  distinctive 
doctrines  are  contained  in  the  Eevelation  which 
we  name  as  the  first  of  them.  It  is  the  precious 
repository  of  the  peculiar  faith  of  a  peculiar 
people.  We  must  keep  it  inviolate  if  we  would 
keep  these  invaluable  doctrines  and  make  them 
universal.  The  Bible  holds  them  in  their  purity 
and  right  proportion.  It  does  not  contain  all  the 
truth,  nor  every  kind  of  truth  in  the  world,  but 
it  holds  the  Truth  which  all  the  world  beside  does 
not  contain  and  which  is  an  order  of  truth  dis- 
tinct from  mere  scientific  knowledge. 

There  is  abroad  a  scholastic  sophism  which  avers 
that  truth  is  one  and  puts  an  equal  premium  on  all 
knowledge.  Evangelical  truth  is  a  distinct  essence 
both  in  quality  and  potentiality.  It  is  the  Truth 
which  if  a  man  know  he  shall  be  made  free.  A  man 
ought  to  know  other  things  ;  he  must  know  this.  He 
is  ignorant  without  the  other ;  he  is  lost  without  this. 
It  is  more  than  fact ;  it  is  doctrine,  it  is  gospel.  It 
is  not  merely  addressed  to  the  intellect  and  reason, 
but  to  the  heart  and  conscience.  It  begets  a  spir- 
itual experience  and  imparts  moral  energy.  Pos- 
sessing it,  a  man  is  surcharged  with  its  vital  princi- 
ple.    It  is  not  simply  knowledge,  it  is  life  that  a 

» W.  B.  Bogga. 


A  Self-Verifying  Revelation  125 

man   possesses  after  he  has    learned  evangelical 
truth  after  the  evangelical  method. 

The  Bible  in  a  unique  sense  is  a  revelation  and  as 
such  its  religious  function  is  distinct.  It  is  the 
standard  of  religious  truth.  Keligious  truth  gotten 
elsewhere  is  gold  from  the  mine ;  taken  from  this 
Book,  it  is  gold  from  the  mint  with  the  stamp  of 
the  kingdom  upon  it.  Elsewhere  truth  is  partial 
and  polluted;  here  it  is  pure  and  perfect.  In  other 
books  you  may  find  religious  truth  in  fragments ; 
in  this  Book  in  fullness.  In  them  we  catch  its  glim- 
mer ;  in  this  we  behold  it  in  its  glory.  All  truth 
is  good ;  but  Bible  truth  is  the  gauge.  Search  for 
it  where  you  will,  but  sift  it  here.  Welcome  it 
from  everywhere,  but  weigh  it  by  this  standard. 
This  Book  is  the  test  of  all  that  challenges  the 
verity  or  courts  the  company  of  its  doctrines.  In 
the  light  of  Kevelation  we  may  revise  our  opinions, 
but  our  opinions  may  not  revise  Kevelation.  This 
Bible  is  perhaps  the  only  creed  that  does  not  in  our 
day  need  revising.  Scholars  may  study  it,  translate 
it  but  dare  not  revise  the  original  content  when 
that  is  known.  We  do  not  need  a  "  Kevised  Bible." 
The  purpose  of  more  careful  translation  should  be 
to  correct  human  revision  of  the  divine  revelation. 
With  the  Bible  as  authority,  I  may  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  other  books ;  but  as  Tayler  Lewis  says : 
"This  Book  sits  in  judgment  on  me."  Let  evan- 
gelical Christians  make  the  words  of  Kerr  Boyce 
Tupper  their  slogan,  "  The  Bible,  no  additions  to  it, 
no  subtractions  from  it,  no  alterations  in  it  to  the 


126  The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity- 
end  of  time :  "  and  as  they  get  light  on  it,  practice 
what  they  learn.  They  will  thus  be  drawn  to- 
gether in  bonds  stronger  and  a  union  more  real  and 
enduring  than  are  found  in  all  human  orders  and 
societies,  and  they  will  steadily  and  surely  draw 
the  rest  of  the  world  to  the  unique  and  saving 
truths  which  this  Book  contains. 

The  Scripture  revelation  is  self -verifying ;  but 
this  does  not  mean  a  verification  of  special  in- 
terpretations of  it.  The  infallibility  of  the  Word 
honestly  applied  as  a  standard  of  authority  may 
indeed  prove  the  fallibility  of  the  interpreter.  We 
are  not  prepared  to  carry  the  science  of  interpreta- 
tion to  perfection  until  we  decide  whether  or  not 
the  Book  is  a  true  and  consistent  revelation,  need- 
ing only  to  be  understood  to  regulate  all  that  is  out 
of  conformity  to  it.  What  is  the  use  of  searching 
for  its  meaning  if  you  are  not  sure  that  the  mean- 
ing is  consequential  ?  Admitting  that  it  is  true  in 
its  original  content  and  real  meaning,  we  may  wel- 
come any  criticism,  higher  or  lower,  that  will  help 
us  to  understand  it ;  but  we  emphatically  dissent 
from  criticism  which  would  be  considered  as  au- 
thoritative as  the  Book. 

The  unqualified  acceptance  by  all  men  of  this 
self -attested  Revelation  as  the  supreme  test  of  re- 
ligious faith  would  shortly  bring  the  religious 
thinking  of  the  world  into  harmony  and  lead  the 
race  to  the  goal  which  religion  is  designed  to  guide 
men  to.  This  would  not  only  settle  questions  over 
which   Christian  sects   war,  but  all   those  larger 


A  Self- Verifying  Revelation  127 

issues  about  which  philosophers  speculate  and  dis- 
pute and  which  divide  the  races  absolutely  into 
opposing  religions,  such  as  Brahmanism,  Buddhism, 
Christianity,  etc.  The  following  brief  sentences, 
quoted  by  Dr.  J.  E.  Sampey,'  show  how  this  process 
would  advance.  He  is  speaking  of  the  first  words 
of  the  Bible :  "In.  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth."  "  This  first  verse  denies 
atheism ;  for  it  assumes  the  being  of  God.  It  de- 
nies polytheism,  and,  among  its  various  forms,  the 
doctrine  of  two  eternal  principles,  the  one  good  and 
the  other  evil;  for  it  confesses  the  one  eternal 
Creator.  It  denies  materialism,  for  it  asserts  the 
creation  of  matter.  It  denies  pantheism ;  for  it 
assumes  the  existence  of  God  before  all  things  and 
apart  from  them.  It  denies  fatalism  ;  for  it  involves 
the  freedom  of  the  Eternal  Being."  If  the  first  verse 
of  Scripture  would  settle  so  much,  we  may  be  sure 
the  whole  Bible,  if  accepted,  would  fix  all  the  rest. 
Until  all  the  earnest  seekers  after  relio:ious  truth 
shall  admit  that  this  Eevelation  is  the  standard  and 
authority  of  final  appeal,  we  may  not  expect  a 
synthesis  of  religious  belief. 

*  "  The  Heart  of  the  Old  Testament." 


II 


A  PERSONALLY  REVEALED  DEITY—THE 
DOCTRINE  OF  THE  INCARNATION 

THE  most  important  consideration  in  con- 
nection with  any  religion  is  the  idea  of 
the  Deity  it  contains.  There  can  be  no 
true  religion  where  there  is  a  false  notion  of  God. 
The  essential  difference  between  natural  religion 
and  revealed  religion  is  the  revelation  of  Deity 
which  they  respectively  recognize.  The  revelation 
of  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  of  which  Christianity  boasts, 
differentiates  it  from  all  other  religions  by  so  great 
a  gulf  as  that  which  exists  between  nature  and 
the  supernatural.  The  infinite  measure  of  Deity 
divides  them.  The  proof  of  its  doctrine  of  Incar- 
nation is  sufficient  to  distinguish  Christianity  from 
all  other  religions  and  to  establish  its  right  to 
supersede  them.  Man  must  have  a  revelation  of 
God  if  he  is  to  serve  Him.  In  Jesus  Christ  only 
men  find  the  '^  effulgence  of  His  glory  and  the  very 
image  of  His  person,"  even  as  through  Christ  only 
they  may  hope  to  find  that  glory  which  it  is  the 
ultimate  end  of  religion  to  gain  for  man. 

The  human  heart  has  voids  which  only  the 
Infinite  can  fill  and  hopes  which  Christ  alone  has 
been  found  to  satisfy.  The  soul  has  no  such  un- 
quenchable thirst  as  its  conscious  desire  for  God. 

128 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         129 

"  My  soul  longeth,  yea,  even  fainteth  for  the  courts 
of  Jehovah ;  my  heart  and  my  flesh  cry  out  unto 
the  living  God  "  (Psa.  Ixxxiv.  2).  This  cry  of  the 
soul  is  for  knowledge  of  His  moral  attributes,  His 
nature,  and  His  disposition  towards  one  of  His 
moral  creatures,  all  conscious  of  sin,  and  for  com- 
munion with  Him.  This  is  the  agonizing  cry  of 
every  man  in  his  moments  of  truest  self -conscious- 
ness. "  My  most  passionate  desire,"  says  Tennyson, 
"  is  for  a  fuller  and  clearer  vision  of  God."  A  God 
"  to  love  and  be  loved  by  forever,"  is  an  insatiable 
desire  in  every  human  soul.  Such  a  revelation  is 
also  necessary  in  order  to  calm  man's  fears  for  the 
future,  and  give  him  confidence  in  a  kind  treatment 
there.  We  need  not  look  for  a  revelation  else- 
where than  in  Christ. 

Fmding  God  in  Christ,  Christians  love  Him; 
others  fear  Him.  The  discovery  of  God  in  Christ 
for  the  first  time  set  the  world  a-singing.  Eusebius, 
the  first  church  historian,  tells  us  that,  "  from  the 
beginning,"  the  persecuted  disciples  poured  forth 
their  joyful  praises  to  Christ,  "  calling  Him  God." 
In  the  first  century,  Pliny  writes  that  "  they  (the 
Christians)  were  accustomed  on  a  stated  day  to 
meet  before  daylight  and  to  repeat  among  them- 
selves a  hymn  to  Christ  as  to  a  God."  At  last  men 
had  found  in  religion  that  which  satisfied  the  soul, 
that  for  which  all  religion  was  a  search.  With  all  the 
soul's  deep  desire  for  God,  sinful  man  must  confess : 

"Till  God  in  human  flesh  I  see, 
My  thoughts  no  comfort  find." 


130    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Eobert  Browning  sounds  the  depth  of  the  human 
soul  and  voices  the  desire  of  his  own  ; 


"  'Tis  the  weakness  in  strength  that  I  cry  for  ! 

My  flesh  that  I  seek  in  the  Godhead  !     I  seek  and  find  it. 
O  Saul  it  shall  be  a  face  like  to  my  face  that  receives 
Thee ;  a  Man  like  me,  thou  shalt  love  and  be  loved 
Forever,  a  hand  like  this  hand  shall  throw  open  the  gates 
Of  new  life  to  thee  !    See  the  Christ  stand  ! ' ' 

Sh*  Oliver  Lodge  says :  "  I  believe  that  the  most 
essential  element  in  Christianity  is  the  conception 
of  a  human  God."  *  The  incarnation  answers  the 
call  of  the  human  heart  after  God,  and  constitutes  a 
fundamental  characteristic  of  Christianity.  It  radi- 
cally distinguishes  it  from  all  that  came  before  it, 
and  as  radically  from  all  its  contemporaries.  The 
deifications,  incarnations  and  transmigrations  of  the 
other  religions  are  irrational,  fantastic,  grotesque, 
sometimes  monstrous  and  revolting  incidents  in  the 
literature  of  religion  and  bear  only  a  semblance  to 
the  incarnation.  Take,  for  instance,  the  Egyptian 
deity-manifestations,  one  in  the  form  of  a  ram, 
another  a  crocodile,  a  he-goat,  a  she-wolf,  a 
baboon,  a  cat,  a  cow,  a  snake,  etc.,  etc.  The  most 
familiar  and  conspicuous  example  of  these  ethnic 
incarnations,  Yishnu  in  Hinduism,  is  equally  gro- 
tesque. The  incarnations  of  Yishnu  are  represented 
to  be  first  in  the  form  of  a  great  fish,  then  a  tor- 
toise, a  boar,  etc.,  tersely  enumerated  and  fairly 
characterized  in  poetic  form  by  Edwin  Arnold,  an 

*  "  Science  and  Immortality,"  p.  285, 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         131 

intense  admirer  of  Buddhism,  in  his  "Light  of 
Asia." ' 

*'  Fish  !  that  didst  outswim  the  flood ; 
Tortoise  !  whereon  earth  hath  stood  ; 
Boar  !  who  with  thy  tush  held'st  high 
The  world  !  that  mortals  might,  not  die  ; 
Lion  !  who  hast  giants  torn ; 
Dwarf  !  who  laugh'dst  a  king  to  scorn; 
Soul  Subduer  of  the  Dreaded ! 
Slayer  of  the  many-headed  ! 
Mighty  Plowman  !    Teacher  tender  ! 
Of  thine  own  the  sure  Defender  ! 
Under  all  thy  ten  disguises 
Endless  praise  to  thee  arises. '  * 

Krishna  is  characterized  by  Dr.  Boggs  who,  by  study 
for  the  greater  part  of  a  half -century,  had  pene- 
trated the  verbal  and  moral  significance  of  Hindu- 
ism as  "  the  sly  thief  and  shameless  libertine  whose 
libidinous  exploits  among  the  shepherd  women 
gained  for  him  an  epithet  by  which  he  is  com- 
monly known  to-day,  viz.,  '  Gopinahda,  the  Lord 
of  the  shepherdesses.'  "  Could  such  a  life  represent 
God,  or  any  book  that  claims  it  does  be  divinely 
inspired  ?  In  the  Holy  Scriptures  God  is  ever  the 
Holy  and  Eight eous  One.  "  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  is 
the  Lord  God  Almighty."  It  is  this  holiness  Jesus 
comes  to  represent  and  exemplify  and  so  lived 
among  a  degenerated  race,  "  holy,  guileless,  unde- 
filed  and  separated  from  sinners  "  (Heb.  vii.  26). 
What  religious  purpose  can  such  fables  serve? 

1  Pages  176-178. 


132    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Krishna  was  repeatedly  guilty  of  murder  and  theft, 
even  stealing  a  sacred  tree  in  heaven.  His  polyg- 
amy extended  to  sixty  thousand  wives  who  bear  him 
eighteen  thousand  sons.'  Such  "  Incarnations  "  do 
not  reveal  Deity  but  rather  blind  the  spiritual  eyes 
of  men  and  obscure  the  face  of  the  Deity.  Jesus 
opened  blinded  eyes  and  made  clear  disclosure  of 
God.  His  revelation  purifies,  while  Krishna  dark- 
ens the  vision  and  putrefies  the  ethical  ideals  of  his 
devotees.  Max  Muller's  definition  of  religion  is 
one  Christianity  alone  meets.  "Keligion  is,"  he 
says,  "  the  perception  of  the  Infinite  under  such 
manifestations  as  are  able  to  influence  the  moral 
character  of  men."  Gautama  did  not  include  Deity 
in  his  philosophy.  In  the  absence  of  a  Deity,  his 
disciples  afterwards  deified  him  and  he  became  the 
Buddha.  The  Christian  doctrine  reverses  the 
heathen  process.  God  here  becomes  human ;  there 
man  becomes  divine.  Jesus  came  down,  and  in 
Gautama  and  other  like  fables  man  went  up.  Jesus 
emptied  Himself  and  became  the  companion  of  the 
lowly ;  they  arose  to  superiority. 

Important  to  a  pro23er  consideration  of  these  in- 
carnations, is  the  conclusion  of  scholars  that  they 
are  growths,  and  not  of  the  original  content  of  any 
ethnic  faith.  ISTot  until  Christian  centuries  had 
multiplied  does  there  appear  any  well  authenticated 
claim  for  an  incarnation  in  Hinduism.^  Just  as  Ko- 
man  Catholicism  sought  to  overcome  and  absorb 


^ "  Christ  and  Other  Masters,"  pp.  199-200. 
^  Ibid.,  pp.  201-203. 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity  133 

heathenism  by  appropriating  some  of  its  forms  and 
giving  them  Christian  meaning,  so  Hinduism  tried 
to  compete  with  Christianity  by  imitating  its  doc- 
trine of  Incarnation.  The  successive  Llama  "  in- 
carnations" of  Buddhism  in  Tibet  and  elsewhere 
are  modern  inventions  of  comparatively  recent  his- 
torical origin ;  and  even  these  do  not  represent  ap- 
pearances of  Deity,  but  deifications,  and  reappear- 
ances of  supreme  monks.  Good  authority  estab- 
lishes the  fact  that  in  its  primitive  form,  Buddhism 
was  even  atheistic  and  therefore  had  no  room  for  a 
mundane  Deity  as  it  had  no  celestial  abode  for 
man.  Without  a  God  as  the  primary  requisite  of 
its  creed,  annihilation  of  personality  was  the  goal 
of  Buddhism. 

In  distinction  to  all  this,  the  incarnation  of 
Christ,  an  original  fundamental  and  peculiar  doc- 
trine of  Christianity,  is  the  purest  and  most  beauti- 
ful fact  in  the  history  and  doctrines  of  religion,  and 
like  every  essential  Christian  truth,  is  authenticated 
by  many  infallible  proofs. 

We  adduce  one  of  these  proofs  but  one  which,  if 
established,  constitutes  the  strongest  inferential  tes- 
timony to  the  validity  of  all  others.  We  name  the 
sinlessness  of  Jesus  as  unassailable  evidence  of  His 
Deity.  JS'aturally,  I  think,  we  would  look  for  the 
sufficient  and  convincing  evidence  of  His  Deity  in 
Himself,  and,  since  the  purpose  of  such  a  revela- 
tion is  religious,  we  would  expect  to  find  the  most 
prominent  exhibition  of  the  divine  presence  to  be 
moral  and  spiritual  and  not  physical.     Physical 


134    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

gianthood  is  a  very  ancient  heathen  conception  of 
Deityhood,  but  would  not,  to-day,  constitute  evi- 
dence in  a  court  of  high  moral  order.  The  highest 
moral  perfection  is  the  most  religious  conception  of 
God.  The  test  of  religion  and  of  religious  profession 
is  character.  If  Jesus  is  found  sinless,  there  is  no  need 
of  other  proof ;  if  in  any  particular.  He  falls  short  of 
this,  no  testimony  to  His  Divinity  is  valid ;  if  in 
anything  He  is  less  than  this,  it  is  mvalidated.  He 
made  claims  of  supernatural  origin  and  destiny  of 
divine  authority  and  power,  made  promises,  as- 
sumed prerogatives,  declared  Himself  to  be  the 
arbiter  of  human  destiny  and  happiness  in  such  a 
way  and  to  such  a  degree  as  none  but  God  could. 
]^othing  short  of  a  godlike  life  can  support  such 
claims  of  godlike  offices.  These,  and  all  other 
testimonies  collapse  if  He  is  convicted  of  sin.  All 
other  evidences  of  Christianity  Avhich  rest  upon  His 
words  and  works  are  inferentially  verified  by  His 
sinlessness.  His  sinlessness  gives  credibility  to  His 
testimony.  "The  main  historic  evidence  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  was  the  life  He  lived  before 
He  died  on  the  cross."  * 

That  life  is  also  the  strongest  support  of  all  else  of 
a  miraculous  and  divine  character  we  believe  con- 
cerning Him.  Evidently  the  wisdom  which  inspired 
the  records  of  His  earthly  career  meant  that  what 
He  was,  rather  than  the  miracles  He  wrought, 
should  claim  the  largest  attention  and  constitute 
the  fullest  evidence  that  He  was  what  He  claimed 

^  Upham. 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         135 

to  be,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh ;  for  all  His  biog- 
raphers have  devoted  most  of  their  space  to  the 
life  which  He  lived,  rather  than  to  the  miracles 
which  He  wrought  or  that  which  He  accomplished 
in  His  resurrection.  His  life  must  constitute  the 
moral,  that  is  to  say,  the  religious  revelation  which 
He  makes.  Prove  His  character  and  you  establish 
the  character  of  His  testimony  which  is  a  claun  for 
Deity  revealed  in  His  person. 

Hear  Him :  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen 
the  Father."  He  testifies  of  Himself  that,  "  Before 
Abraham  Avas,  I  am."  As  Liddon  points  out,  not 
I  was  but  I  am,  denoting  preexistent,  eternal 
being.  He  teaches  ISTicodemus  that  He  is  one  who 
"  descended  out  of  heaven,  even  the  Son  of  man 
which  is  in  heaven  "  (John  iii.  13).  He  told  the 
Jews,  "  I  and  the  Father  are  one  "  (John  x.  30). 
He  claimed  to  forgive  sins,  promised  eternal  life  for 
all  who  believed  on  Him,  and  declared  that  He 
would  judge  the  world.  No  mere  man  could  make 
such  claims  without  involving  hhnself  in  deepest 
guilt.  Even  Jesus  must  back  such  claims  with  a 
godlike  life,  a  heavenly  character,  or  His  claims 
fall  to  the  ground.  "JSTothing  but  His  true  and 
real  divinity  can  save  Him  from  the  accusation  of 
blasphemy  and  us  from  idolatry." '  And  nothing 
short  of  a  divine  life  will  sufficiently  attest 
His  divine  nature.  As  Weiss  says,  this  is  "The 
dilemma  from  which  there  is  no  escape :  He  w^ho 
has  removed  from  the  eyes  of  all  the  blindness  and 

^  Christlieb,  "Modern  Doubt  aud  Christian  Belief,"  p.  441. 


136    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

self-deception  and  of  self-righteousness,  who  has 
taught  us  all  to  seek  forgiveness  where  it  is  to  be 
found,  He  Avas  either  the  chief  of  sinners,  for  self- 
righteous  pride  is  the  root  and  climax  of  sin,  or  He 
was  the  only  sinless  one  upon  whose  life  the  peace 
of  God  rested."  He  who  convicted  all  men  of  sin, 
and  required  repentance  and  confession  of  them  on 
penalty  of  eternal  ruin,  never  acknowledged  sin  in 
Himself.  Truly,  therefore,  He  was  either  more  or 
less  than  a  good  man. 

To  the  question,  therefore.  Was  Jesus  sinless  ? 
the  answer  may  be  made  without  qualification. 
The  critical  judgment  of  nineteen  centuries  has  left 
His  character  unmarred,  and  His  holy  name  vindi- 
cated. The  pure  eye  of  the  saintliest  and  the  sus- 
picious eye  of  the  irreligious  critic  alike  have  failed 
to  find  a  sin-spot  on  the  white  garment  of  His  im- 
maculate righteousness.  [N'ot  even  a  momentary 
lapse  from  His  high  rectitude  or  a  devious  word  in 
all  that  He  spoke  has  been  discovered.  A  sensitive 
spirit  like  Alfred  Tennyson  was  constrained  to  say, 
"  I  am  amazed  at  the  splendour  of  Christ's  purity 
and  holiness  and  at  His  infinite  beauty."  He  made 
such  an  exhibition  of  virtue  as  was  never  found  in 
man,  yea,  all  that  we  could  wish  or  imagine  in  a 
god.  Indeed  only  the  God  of  Christianity  can 
match  Christianity's  Christ.  No  other  religion 
ever  portrayed  a  god  equal  to  that  which  Christ 
reveals.  Even  the  gods  of  the  old  heathenism  were 
sinners.  The  gods  of  Greece  fought  among  them- 
selves and  lived  in  luxury,  free-love  and  pleasure, 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         137 

disregarding  the  woes  of  man.  Instead  of  learning 
virtues  from  the  gods,  men  imputed  their  own  vices 
to  their  divinities,  and  in  turn  had  these  vices  nour- 
ished in  themselves  by  their  religious  devotions. 
Jesus  Christ  exhibited  the  first  perfect  manhood 
and  first  revealed  a  perfect  Godhood. 

No  other  religion,  however  much  below  Chris- 
tianity in  its  ethical  standards,  furnishes  a  perfect 
historical  exemplar  of  its  moral  ideals.  Moham- 
medans teach  that  "  all  the  prophets  " — Adam,  Da- 
vid and  Mohammed — were  sinless,  but  this  claim  is 
contradicted  by  familiar  facts  in  the  lives  of  these 
men,  and  is  more  than  a  sign  of  a  low  moral 
standard  in  the  system  which  makes  the  claim.' 
ISTot  even  Buddha,  the  best  of  them  all,  affords 
such  an  example.  Other  religions  invite  men  to 
follow  founders  who  did  not  live  up  to  what  they 
taught  and  what  is  expected  of  their  votaries. 
As  Walker  says,  ''  Theory  without  practice  and  pre- 
cept without  example,  does  not  constitute  a  perfect 
system  of  religion."  ^  The  words  of  Dr.  Charles  Cuth- 
bert  Hall  are  equally  pertinent  at  this  point :  "  The 
dynamic  of  Christianity  was  found  originally  in  the 
person  of  Christ  and  not  in  the  eloquence  of  His 
sayings  and  the  beneficence  of  His  actions.  The 
sayings  and  the  actions  took  on  their  great  signifi- 
cance because  of  what  He  was  in  Himself,  as  the 
effulgence  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  express 
image  of  His  substance.     Well  did  Whately  say, 

^  See  "  Moslem  Doctrine  of  God, "  by  S.  M.  Zwemer,  p.  114. 
>  "Philosophy  of  Salvation,"  p.  120. 


138    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

'  Christ  came  not  so  much  to  Triake  a  revelation  of 
truth  by  His  own  words,  as  to  he  a  revelation  of 
truth  in  His  own  person.'  "  *  When  Adam  sinned, 
the  model  after  which  the  race  was  henceforth 
to  be  made  was  spoiled.  Sin  impaired  man's 
vision  so  that  he  could  not  after  see  God  till 
Christ  and  the  new  Adam  appeared.  Jesus  dis- 
closed the  true  God  and  the  real  man.  "  He  that 
hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father,"  He  could  say. 
Not  without  Deity  could  perfect  manhood  be  ex- 
hibited and  only  in  a  perfect  man  could  Deity  be 
perfectly  revealed  to  man.  A  perfect  revelation  of 
God  makes  a  perfect  revelation  of  man,  even  as  a 
bright  sun  lights  the  face  of  him  who  beholds  it. 
"  As  through  a  transparent  medium,  the  things  of 
God  shone  into  His  soul."  No  ray  of  divine  light 
was  deflected  by  beam  or  mote  in  Him.  His  clear 
eye  rightly  focused  all  the  rays  of  truth  and  thus 
gained  a  perfect  vision. 

Therefore,  His  representations  of  truth  are 
true.  Such  a  life  is  a  solitary  exception  to  all 
that  crowd  the  history  of  the  race.  Only  poetic 
license  could  justify  the  ascription  to  King 
Arthur  of  "The  white  flower  of  a  blameless 
life,"  but  the  critics  of  Christianity  have  for  two 
millenniums  left  Christ's  name  untarnished  by  a  sin- 
gle plausible  rumour.  Jesus  boldly  put  the  chal- 
lenge, "  Which  of  you  convicteth  me  of  sin  ?  "  Not 
one,  even  of  those  that  hated  Him  most  and  desired 
above  all  things  His  conviction,  could  prove  Him 

*  "  Universal  Elements  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  p.  106. 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         139 

guilty  of  such  a  charge  even  before  an  ud believing 
judge,  who  would  have  been  glad  to  have  Him 
proven  guilty  that  he  might  get  Him  off  his  hands. 
It  was  in  the  second  century  before  a  critic 
could  be  found  with  the  temerity  to  challenge 
Christ's  claim  to  sinlessness.  Celsus,  when  he  had 
raised  the  question,  was  not  able  to  support  it  and 
no  other  critic  of  weight  was  found  to  propose  it 
for  near  two  thousand  years.  Then  arose  a  few 
men  of  respectable  ability  who,  while  not  affirming 
moral  obliquity,  set  up  an  interrogation  point. 
These  were  routed  from  the  field  even  by  men  as 
critical  as  themselves  and  with  as  little  reverence 
for  evangelical  clauns.  The  few  recent  feeble  bur- 
lesques on  criticism  which  have  tried  to  find  moral 
distortion  in  certain  incidents  in  His  life  have 
already  caused  their  authors  to  be  laughed  or 
scorned  out  of  court  for  their  puerile  efforts.  The 
world's  decision  has  been  made,  and  will  not  be  re- 
versed. Intelligent  critics  vie  with  one  another  in 
laudation  of  His  peerless  life.  Goethe,  Christian 
neither  by  profession  nor  practice,  says :  "  The  hu- 
man mind,  no  matter  how  much  it  may  advance  in 
intellectual  culture  and  in  the  extent  and  depth  of 
the  knowledge  of  natm'e  will  never  transcend  the 
height  and  moral  culture  of  Christianity  as  it  shines 
and  glows  in  the  person  of  Christ."  Kosseau,  the 
skeptic,  says:  "What  sweetness,  what  purity  in 
His  manner  !  What  an  affecting  gracefulness  in 
His  delivery !  What  sublimity  in  His  maxims ! 
What  ^profound  wisdom  in  His  discourses !     What 


140    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

presence  of  mind  in  His  answers  !  How  great  the 
command  over  His  passions  !  Where  is  the  man, 
where  the  philosopher,  who  could  so  live  and  so  die 
without  weakness  and  without  ostentation  ?  If  the 
life  and  death  of  Socrates  were  those  of  a  sage,  the 
life  and  death  of  Jesus  were  those  of  a  God." 
Strauss,  the  merciless  critic,  tells  us  that :  "  Jesus 
represents  within  the  sphere  of  religion  the  culmi- 
nation point,  beyond  which  posterity  can  never  go, 
yea,  which  it  cannot  even  equal.  He  remains  the 
highest  model  of  religion  within  the  reach  of  our 
thoughts."  Renan  declares  that :  "  Whatever  may 
be  the  surprises  of  the  future,  Jesus  will  never  be 
surpassed." 

Thus  speak  those  whose  judgment  is  of  the 
coldest  intellectual  sort.  Now  let  one  speak  for 
that  class,  Avho,  having  loved  Him,  know  Him 
best.  He  first  calls  the  roll  of  earth's  great  and 
in  all,  in  each,  some  wrong,  some  fault,  must  be 
forgiven : 


"  Ye  companions  of  the  governor-spirits  grave, 
Bards,  and  ye  old  bringers-down  of  flaming  news, 
From  steep  wall  heaven,  wholly  malcontents, 
Sweet  seers  and  stellar  visionaries  all. 
That  brood  about  the  skies  of  poesy, 
Full  bright  ye  shine,  insuperable  stars; 
Yet  if  man  looked  hard  upon  you,  none 
With  total  lustre  blazeth,  no,  not  one 
But  hath  some  heinous  freckle  of  the  flesh 
Upon  his  shining  cheeks,  not  one  but  winks 
His  ray  opaqued  with  intermittent  mist 
Of  defect." 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         141 

But  of  Jesus,  the  Crystal  Christ,  he  says : 


i( 


But  Thee,  but  Thee,  thou  Sovereign  Seer  of  time, 

But  Thee,  O  Poet's  Poet,  O  Wisdom's  tongue, 

But  Thee,  O  man's  best  Man,  O  love's  best  Love, 

O  Perfect  life  in  perfect  labour  writ, 

O  All  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King,  or  Priest,— 

What  if  or  yet,  what  mole,  what  flaw,  what  lapse, 

What  least  defect,  or  shadow  of  defect, 

What  rumour  tattled  by  an  enemy, 

Of  inference  loose,  what  lack  of  grace. 

Even  in  torture's  grasp,  or  sleep's,  or  death's, — 

O  what  amiss  may  I  forgive  in  Thee 

Jesus,  good  Paragon,  thou  Crystal  Christ?  " 

("  The  Crystal  Christ,^ ^  by  Sidney  Lanier.) 


It  should  be  carefully  noted  that  this  praise  is 
not  of  exceptional  virtues  carried  by  Jesus  to  the 
highest  perfection,  but  of  harmonious  exemplifica- 
tions of  all  virtues  in  a  perfectly  symmetrical  life. 
Other  men  have  been  made  famous  by  single 
virtues  while  their  characters  have  been  sadly 
marred  by  corresponding  moral  weaknesses. 
This  truth  could  be  illustrated  almost  ad  infinitum 
by  citing  more  particularly  than  Lanier  does,  the 
world's  heroes.  There  is  scarcely  one  in  the 
number  whose  fame  is  not  marred  by  some  "  fleck 
or  flaw."  No  wonder  Phillips  Brooks  laments 
that  "  So  much  of  the  noblest  life  which  the  world 
has  seen,  dissatisfies  us  with  its  partialness;  so 
many  of  the  greatest  men  we  see  are  great  only 
on  certain  sides,  and  have  their  other  sides  all 
shi'unken  and  flat."     Abraham  had  faith,  but  he 


142     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

lied;  Moses  was  meek,  but  lost  his  temper; 
David  was  full  of  praise  for  God,  but  defiled  his 
name  with  a  nameless  sin ;  Socrates  was  wanting 
in  love  for  his  wife  and  child ;  Aristotle  and  Plato 
were  bestially  sensual.  And  so  the  defense  and  in- 
dictment runs  down  all  the  long  line  of  earth's 
greatest  and  best.  But  in  Jesus,  "  All  colours  of 
all  virtues,  all  hues  of  all  graces,  blend  in  His  own 
pure  whiteness  as  though  He  Himself  were  eter- 
nal, God's  own  blessed  sunbeam."^  To  quote 
a  merciless  critic  again,  "  It  was  a  whole,  a  full,  a 
blameless  life,  no  piece-work,  no  mixture  of  lofty 
and  base ;  it  is  a  divine  creation,  in  full  force  of 
largest  love.  .  .  .  It  is  the  realized  ideal  of 
God  in  His  creation.^'  ^ 

Dr.  Geikie  speaks  of  Him  thus  :  "  It  is  admitted, 
even  by  those  of  other  faiths,  that  He  (Jesus)  was 
at  once  a  great  teacher  and  a  living  illustration  of 
the  truths  He  taught."  To  appreciate  the  quality 
of  this  praise,  we  must  remember  that  Jesus  set  the 
standard  higher  than  any  other  teacher  had  ever 
set  it,  and  then  realized  His  own  ideal.  He  ful- 
filled to  the  letter  the  Old  Testament  requirements 
and  went  beyond  them  in  realizing  His  own  supe- 
rior ideal.  He  said.  He  came  not  to  destroy 
the  law  or  the  prophets,  but  to  fulfill  them.  The 
law  and  the  prophets  ;  He  fulfilled  the  Old  Testa- 
ment law,  as  well  as  the  Old  Testament  prophecy. 
He   not  only  came  where,  when,  and  as  the  Old 

^  George  Dana  Boardman,  in  "  The  Problem  of  Jesus." 
*  Keim. 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         143 

Testament  said  He  would  but  during  all  His  sojourn 
here,  He  was  all  it  said  one  ought  to  be.  He  fulfilled 
all  the  predictions  that  referred  to  Him  and  all  that 
the  commands  requu^ed  of  Him :  He  verified  proph- 
ecy and  exemplified  law.  After  hearing  the  testi- 
mony of  His  accusers  an  enemy  was  compelled  to 
say :  "  1  find  no  fault  in  Him."  And  one  who 
had  the  best  opportunity  of  aU  to  know  Him  said 
that :  He  "  did  no  sin  neither  was  guile  found  in 
His  mouth  "  (1  Peter  ii.  22).  Another  who  was  close 
to  the  sources  of  knowledge  and  who  best  of  all  in- 
terpreted His  life,  said :  "  Hun  who  knew  no  sin 
He  made  to  be  sin  on  our  behalf  "  (2  Cor.  v.  21). 

These  testimonies  are  from  men  who  of  all  men 
had  the  acutest  sense  of  sin,  to  whose  enlightened 
consciences  things  innocent  to  others  were  sinful, 
and  in  whose  AArritings  no  man's  sins,  not  even  their 
own,  are  excused.  They  would  have  been  the  first 
to  discover  and  the  last  to  condone  even  the  ap- 
pearance of  sin  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  fulfilled  all 
the  law  and  the  prophets.  No  true  prophet  had 
spoken  a  truth  on  religion,  either  in  the  Bible  or  out 
of  it,  which  He  did  not  fulfill.  Men  have  not 
found  an  utterance  of  the  sages  which  Jesus  did 
not  exemplify  and  transcend  in  His  teaching. 

The  goodness  of  Jesus  was  of  the  highest  type. 
It  was  not  a  mere  negative  of  morality  or  even  holi- 
ness; it  was  positive  righteousness.  Other  men 
said  He  did  no  evil.  He  said  :  "  I  do  always  those 
things  which  please  Him."  He  was  no  ascetic 
monk  shrinking  away  from  the  world's  evil  and  its 


144    ^^^  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

work,  but  a  full-blooded  man,  always  moving 
breast  forward  upon  the  world's  sin  and  disorder. 
His  righteousness  was  aggressive.  He  was  sinless 
and,  therefore,  in  such  robust  moral  health  He  did 
not  fear  contagion  while  He  applied  His  moral 
hygienic  to  a  polluted  society  or  went  to  be  guest  of 
a  man  that  was  a  sinner.  There  was  no  timidity  in 
Him  because  there  was  no  sin  in  Him.  He  did  not 
live  in  a  glass  house.  He  did  not  have  to  be  cau- 
tious lest  some  enemy  should  make  some  embar- 
rassing disclosures.  There  was  no  sin  which  He 
would  not  attack  because  He  practiced  none. 

The  weight  of  the  evidence  is  greatly  affected  by 
the  persistent  uniformity  of  His  goodness.  Sinless- 
ness  ran  through  the  whole  life  of  Jesus.  Many  of 
the  saints  were  once  the  chief  of  sinners.  Take 
Jesus  Christ's  life  in  its  morning  and  nothing  in  it 
is  so  fresh  and  beautiful  as  this  moral  quality  which 
ran  so  consistently  through  the  whole  day.  It  is 
true  that  there  is  comparatively  little  told  us  of  that 
winsome  childhood,  but  so  far  as  we  know  it,  this 
is  the  impression  which  it  makes.  And  we  know 
the  details  of  His  life,  even  from  His  advent  and 
childhood,  better  than  some  would  have  us  believe. 
Christ's  life  is  set  in  the  midst  of  more  verifiable 
history  than  that  of  any  other  personage  of  so  an- 
cient a  time.  From  its  beginning.  His  life  in  this 
world  was  set  about  with  historical  event  and  local 
circumstance  in  a  most  remarkable  manner.  In 
this  respect  His  life  was  unlike  the  mythological 
god-appearances  of  other  religions  which  are  with- 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         145* 

out  chronology  or  topography.  His  mother,  Mary, 
was  a  Hebrew  virgin  from  Nazareth  of  Galilee.  He 
was  born  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea,  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  eighth  centmy  of  the  Roman  calendar,  and 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  in  the  days  of 
Herod,  during  the  reign  of  Csesar  Augustus,  and 
when  Cyrenius  was  Governor  of  Syria.  He  lived 
in  IS'azareth  in  the  home  of  Joseph,  worked  as  a 
carpenter,  visited  Jerusalem  when  He  was  twelve 
years  old,  even  at  which  tender  age.  He  was  a  cen- 
tral figure  among  the  learned  and  critical  of  His 
time.  Of  the  journeys,  acts  and  words  by  the  way, 
His  stopping  places,  incidents  of  His  life,  the  world 
is  full  of  authentic  household  stories  more  numerous 
and  familiar  than  all  or  any  which  are  connected 
with  the  life  of  the  greatest  heroes  of  earth. 

At  no  period  was  His  life  lived  in  a  corner.  It  was 
in  the  full  light  of  the  famous  "  Augustan  "  age,  and 
at  the  hub  of  religious  enlightenment.  Jesus  did 
not  appear  in  a  lime-light  of  fabulous  legends  cal- 
culated to  give  artificial  effect,  but  in  the  clear  light 
of  historical  day,  and  in  it  exhibited  the  moral  quali- 
ties that  were  in  Him  and  made  revelation  of  God. 

His  life  was  a  consistent  whole,  the  exception  of  all 
lives,  as  much  in  His  childhood  as  in  His  manhood. 
He  has  not  been  so  often  thought  of  in  this  way, 
but  He  was  as  truly  the  God-child  as  He  was  the 
God-man.  From  the  first  and  throughout.  His  life 
was  perfect  in  poise  and  symmetry,  in  balance  of 
moral  and  intellectual  forces,  unselfish  service,  sen- 
sitiveness  to  high  religious  impression  and  duty, 


146    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

moral  purity  and  a  glowing  yet  rational  religious 
sentiment.  What  a  marvel  of  child-life  is  this ! 
By  no  glint  into  His  youthful  career  given  us  by 
the  record  of  those  who  searched  for  flaws  in  His 
life  is  there  revealed  a  childish  fault  or  freak. 
From  the  cradle  to  the  cross  there  is  harmony  with 
the  high  ideal.  There  is  no  "  wild  oats "  in  His 
youth  and  young  manhood.  The  fullest  flush  of 
vigorous  youth  corresponds  with  the  closing  hours 
of  that  life  as  it  emerges  from  the  upper  room  at 
the  last  supper  discoursing  with  the  disciples  while 
He  entered  the  shadows  of  Gethsemane.  Indeed, 
there  is  not  discoverable  even  the  slightest  incon- 
gruity between  the  moral  tone  of  His  post-resur- 
rection life  and  any  other  moment  w^e  may  select 
for  comparison.  While  He  was  perfectly  human, 
there  was  found  in  Him  nothing  unbecoming  a  God. 
There  is  not  a  foible  or  a  fault,  not  a  momentary 
lapse  in  word  or  deed,  not  one  thing  which  could 
mar  the  dignity  or  the  holiness  of  His  life  or  sug- 
gest a  weakness. 

And  so,  by  this  revelation  of  Deity,  fundamen- 
tally and  infinitely,  Christianity  is  separated  from 
all  other  religions.  "  A  religion  is  true  or  false  as 
it  embodies  true  conceptions  of  God,  and  the  relar 
tion  of  man  to  Him.  ...  All  the  great  relig- 
ions of  the  world  contain  some  truth  concerning  re- 
ligion. But  the  various  religions  have  not  attained 
to  truth,  that  is,  in  accordance  with  reality  in  their 
conceptions  of  God  and  the  relation  of  men  to  Him, 
and  in  this  fundamental  sense  they  are  not  true  re- 


A  Personally  Revealed  Deity         147 

ligions.  They  more  or  less  mislead  the  religious 
natm-e  to  satisfy  it.  Christianity  claims  to  be  the 
true  religion  in  the  sense  that  it  correctly  sets  forth 
the  real  God  and  rightly  declares  the  relation  to 
Him." ' 

The  Unitarians'  view  of  Jesus,  while  seeking  to 
exalt  the  old  Monotheism,  impinges  it  in  a  way  that 
the  evangelical  faith  does  not.  If  Jesus  was  not 
God  but  just  mere  man  par  excellence,  the  Uni- 
tarians not  only  convict  Evangelicals  of  idolatry 
but  by  a  strange  doctrine  of  divinity  in  all  men, 
which  they  deduce  from  their  view  of  Christ,  make 
all  good  men  rivals  of  Deity  ;  whereas,  Evangelicals 
accept  the  unique  and  perfect  Divinity  of  Jesus,  and 
hold  with  the  Jews  to  the  unity  of  the  Godhead. 

The  proof  is  submitted.  The  sinlessness  of 
Jesus  gives  credibility  to  His  claims  to  Divinity. 
"  Admit  His  sinlessness  and  all  the  rest  goes  with 
it.  We  hear  Him  and  obey  Him  and  believe  Him 
and  know  Him  to  be  our  Kedeemer  and  our  Lord."  ^ 

To  state  comprehensively  the  uniqueness  of  the 
Christ  of  Scripture  and  Christian  faith.  He  is,  pro- 
phetically, the  Messiah  of  the  Jews ;  historically, 
the  Sinless  Man;  professedly,  the  Son  of  God; 
officially,  Christ,  the  Anomted  of  God;  mediato- 
rially  the  Eedeemer  and  Saviour  of  sinners; 
eventually,  man's  Judge  ;  finally.  King  of  kings ; 
and  essentially  and  eternally,  God. 

^  "  An  Outline  of  Christian  Theology, "  by  W.  N.  Clark,  p.  3. 
2  "The  Churches'  One  Foundation,"  by  W.  Robertson  Nicoll, 
pp.  127-128. 


Ill 

DEITY  SUFFERING  ON  BEHALF  OF  HUMANITY 
—THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT 

WE  will  not  cumber  space  with  an  elabora- 
tion or  even  an  enumeration  of  all  the 
various  theories  of  the  Atonement,  or 
more  exactly  theories  of  the  death  of  Christ ;  for 
some  of  ^these  theories  do  not  embrace  anything 
that  can  properly  be  called  the  Atonement.  The 
Example  theory  held  by  the  Unitarians,  for  instance, 
does  not  in  any  real  sense  include  the  idea  of  Atone- 
ment. The  Moral  Influence  theory,  which  has 
varied  phases,  draws  a  little  nearer,  but  not  near 
enough  to  be  called  a  theory  of  the  Atonement. 
Especially  is  this  true  of  the  Ritschlianism. 

While,  therefore,  a  discussion  of  the  theories 
of  the  Atonement  is  beyond  our  purpose,  we 
take  occasion  to  say  that  the  title  prefixed  to 
this  chapter  presupposes  a  recognition  of  a  full 
atonement,  and  therefore,  so  far  as  it  suggests  a 
theory,  it  also  warrants  a  free  use  of  such  words 
as  suhstitutionary,  vicarious^  expiatory  and  pi'o- 
pitiatory.  These  words  suggest  the  incomparable 
merit  of  the  death  of  Jesus  and  distinguish  it  from 
every  other  death,  as  it  distinguishes  Christianity 
from  every  other  religion.  Such  positive  statement 
does  not  presuppose  a  failure  to  recognize  mystery 

148 


The  Atonement  149 

in  the  cross.  There  is  mystery  there,  profound 
and  unfathomable.  "We  do  not  know  all  about  His 
death.  Our  human  reason  staggers  before  the 
anomaly  of  the  ages.  But  it  is  just  because  we 
recognize  our  inability  to  comprehend  all  its  signifi- 
cance, that  we  do  not  think  well  of  these  human 
theories  of  the  Atonement.  We  know  nothing  of 
the  transcendent  and  superhuman  purpose  and 
meaning  of  that  death,  except  what  Supernatural 
Wisdom  has  told  us.  Therefore,  we  frame  no 
theory,  but,  rather,  take  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  Testament  record  so  far  as  it  explains  that 
death,  and  further  than  that,  dare  not  speculate. 
So  much  as  we  have  said  here,  the  Scriptures 
plainly  teach,  not  in  one  passage  but  in  many. 
"  But  He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  He 
was  bruised  for  our  iniquities ;  the  chastisement  of 
our  peace  was  upon  Him ;  and  with  His  stripes  we 
are  healed.  All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray  ; 
we  have  turned  every  one  to  his  own  way ;  and 
Jehovah  hath  laid  on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all " 
(Isa.  liii.  5-6).  "  The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life 
a  ransom  for  many  "  (Matt.  xx.  28).  "  I  lay  down 
My  life  for  the  sheep  "  (John  x.  15).  "  But  God 
commendeth  His  own  love  towards  us,  in  that,  while 
we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us  "  (Rom.  v.  8). 
"  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  also 
I  received  :  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according 
to  the  Scriptures  "  (1  Cor.  xv.  3).  "  Him  who  knew 
no  sin,  He  made  to  be  sin  on  our  behalf ;  that  we 


150    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

might  become  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him  " 
(2  Cor.  V.  21),  "  Christ  redeemed  us  from  the  curse 
of  the  law,  having  become  accursed  for  us  "  (Gal.  iii. 
13).  "  Now  once  at  the  end  of  the  ages  hath  He 
been  manifested  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of 
Himself  "  (Heb.  ix.  26).  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  His 
Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin  "  (1  John  i.  7).  "  And 
they  sang  a  new  song,  saying,  worthy  art  Thou  to 
take  the  book,  and  to  open  the  seals  thereof :  for 
Thou  wast  slain,  and  didst  purchase  unto  God  with 
Thy  blood  men  of  every  tribe,  and  tongue,  and 
people,  and  nation "  (Rev.  v.  9).  It  is  hard  to 
understand  how  a  humble  and  reverent  mind, 
willing  to  yield  the  pride  of  intellect  to  the 
authority  of  the  Word  of  God,  can  find  in  these 
passages  anything  less  than  a  vicarious  and  ex- 
piatory substitution. 

Such  an  interpretation  of  Christ's  death  exhibits 
the  closest  harmony  between  the  Old  Testament  sac- 
rifices and  the  death  of  Christ  in  the  relation  of  type 
and  anti-tjrpe. '  Of  this  view.  Dr.  David  Foster  Estes 
says,  "  The  view  of  the  atonement  which  is  at  once 
Scriptural  and  orthodox  is  built  upon  the  experiences 
and  convictions  of  the  holy  men  of  old  in  whom  it  is 
generally  recognized  that  the  Spirit  peculiarly 
wrought:  it  answers  to  the  aspirations  which 
sacrifice  universally  expressed :  it  is  buttressed 
by  the  intuitions,  the  fears,  the  hopes,  embodied 

^  For  the  statements  of  the  pro  and  con  views  on  this  point,  the 
reader  is  referred  to  Denney's  "  Death  of  Christ,"  Chapters  I  and 
II,  and  Sabatier's  "  Modern  Culture,"  pp.  21-29. 


The  Atonement  151 

in  those  masterpieces  of  literature  in  all  the  ages 
which  have  dealt  with  the  tragedy  of  sin:  it  is 
confirmed  by  the  reasonings  of  the  greatest  philoso- 
phers and  theologians :  it  dries  the  tears  of  the 
penitents :  it  has  inspired  the  greatest  and  most 
impassioned  songs  of  our  hymnody :  it  constantly 
incites  saints  to  greater  saintliness  :  it  comforts  life 
and  soul  not  in  life  only,  but  in  death's  dread  hour : 
in  all  this  the  thought  of  Christ  reconciling  God 
and  the  world  by  bearing  the  sin  of  the  world  on 
the  cross  proves  its  ethical  power  to  be  incompa- 
rably great."  ^ 

Here  is  a  significant  fact  set  forth  by  Professor 
Harnack :  "  Let  us  first  consider  the  idea  that 
Jesus'  death  on  the  cross  was  one  of  expiation. 
.  .  .  In  the  first  place  bear  in  mind  a  fact  in 
the  history  of  religion  which  is  quite  universal. 
Those  who  looked  upon  this  death  as  a  sacrifice 
soon  ceased  to  offer  God  any  blood  sacrifice  at  all. 
.  .  .  Further,  wherever  the  Christian  message 
subsequently  penetrated,  the  sacrificial  altars  were 
deserted  and  the  dealers  in  sacrificial  beasts  found 
no  more  j^urchasers.  If  there  is  one  thing  certain 
in  the  history  of  religion,  it  is  that  the  death  of 
Christ  put  an  end  to  all  blood  sacrifices.  .  .  . 
His  death  has  the  value  of  an  expiatory  sacrifice, 
for  otherwise  it  would  not  have  strength  to  pene- 
trate into  that  inner  world  in  which  the  blood 
sacrifices  originated ;  but  it  was  not  a  sacrifice  in 
the  same  sense  of  the  others,  or  else  it  could  not 

^  Review  and  Expositor,  October,  1909,  pp.  618-619. 


152     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

have  put  an  end  to  them ;  it  suppressed  them  by 
settling  accounts  with  them.  Nay,  we  may  go 
further ;  the  validity  of  all  material  sacrifices  was 
destroyed    by  Christ's    death."  * 

This  is  but  a  corroboration  of  the  writer  of  the 
Hebrews :  '^  For  the  law  having  a  shadow  of  the 
good  things  to  come,  and  not  the  very  image  of  the 
things,  can  never  with  those  sacrifices  which  they 
offered  year  by  year  continually  make  the  comers 
thereunto  perfect.  For  then  would  they  not  have 
ceased  to  be  offered  ?  Because  that  the  worshippers 
once  purged  should  have  had  no  more  conscience  of 
sins.  But  in  those  sacrifices  there  is  a  remem- 
brance again  made  of  sins  every  year.  For  it  is 
not  possible  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats 
can  take  away  sins.  Wherefore  when  He  cometh 
unto  the  world.  He  saith,  sacrifice  and  offering  Thou 
wouldst  not,  but  a  body  Thou  hast  prepared  Me :  in 
burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  for  sin  Thou  hast  had 
no  pleasure.  Then  said  I,  Lo  I  come  (in  the  vol- 
ume of  the  book  it  is  written  of  Me,)  to  do  Thy  will, 
O  God :  Above  when  He  said,  sacrifice  and  offer- 
ing and  burnt  offerings  and  offering  for  sin  Thou 
wouldst  not,  neither  hadst  pleasure  therein ;  which 
are  offered  by  the  law ;  then  said  He,  Lo,  I  come  to 
do  Thy  will,  O  God.  He  taketh  away  the  first, 
that  He  may  establish  the  second.  By  the  which 
will  we  are  sanctified  by  the  offering  of  the  body 
of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all.  And  every  priest 
standeth  daily  ministering  and  offering  oftentimes 

1 ' '  What  is  Christianity  ?  "  pp.  168-169 


The  Atonement  153 

the  same  sacrifice,  which  can  never  take  away  sins : 
but  this  man  after  He  had  offered  one  sacrifice  for 
sins  forever  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  God ; 
from  henceforth  expecting  till  His  enemies  be  made 
His  footstool.  For  by  one  offering  He  hath  per- 
fected forever  them  that  are  sanctified.  Whereof 
the  Holy  Ghost  also  is  a  witness  to  us :  for  after 
that  He  had  said  before,  this  is  the  covenant  that  I 
will  make  with  them  after  those  days,  saith  the 
Lord,  I  will  put  My  laws  into  their  hearts,  and 
in  their  minds  will  I  write  them  ;  and  tlieir  sins  and 
iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more.  Now  where 
remission  of  these  is,  there  is  no  more  offering  for 
sin.  Having,  therefore,  brethren,  boldness  to  enter 
into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus  by  a  new 
and  living  way  which  He  hath  consecrated  for  us 
through  the  veil,  that  is  to  say  His  flesh,  and  hav- 
ing an  high  priest  over  the  house  of  God,  let  us 
draw  near  with  a  true  heart  in  full  assurance  of 
faith  having  our  hearts  sprinkled  from  an  evil  con- 
science and  our  bodies  washed  with  pure  water" 
(Heb.  X.  1-23).  How  convincing  the  fact  of  such 
mutual  corroboration  of  history  and  inspiration,  and 
how  glorious  this  crowning  and  unique  act  is  shown 
to  be !  All  other  sacrifices  were  but  types  of  this 
one  and  were  made  obsolete  by  it. 

It  is  this  view  when  preached  that  produces  the 
most  satisfactory  results,  while  the  ineffectiveness 
of  some  of  the  theories  in  the  field  of  evangelism  is 
a  fair  test  of  them.  The  Example  theory,  for  in- 
stance, as  preached  by  Unitarians,  makes  few  con- 


154    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

verts.  Dr.  Denney  aptly  remarks;  "An  atone- 
ment which  does  not  regenerate  ...  is  not  an 
atonement  in  which  men  can  be  asked  to  believe."  * 

And,  again,  the  reverent  scholarship  of  the  world 
is  more  and  more  turning  to  the  vicarious  view  of 
the  Atonement  as  the  most  apparent  interpretation 
of  the  Scriptures  and  are  settuig  it  forth  in  an  in- 
comparable literature.  Among  the  books  of  recent 
years  which  deal  with  the  subject,  those  which 
advocate  this  theory  preponderate  in  numbers  and 
quality  and  are  even  better  than  any  of  their  prede- 
cessors which  support  the  same  view.  Denney  has 
almost  eclipsed  Dale,  indeed  in  thoroughgoing  exe- 
gesis, he  has  perhaps  surpassed  him  and  all  others, 
while  Dr.  Strong,  whose  systematic  theology  is  the 
crowning  effort  of  men  in  dealing  with  the  "  Queen 
of  Sciences,"  has  cast  the  weight  of  his  masterful 
thought  on  this  side  of  the  controversy,  and  Drs. 
Forsyth,  Clow,  Mabie  and  others  increase  the  weight 
of  scholarship  in  favour  of  a  real  Atonement. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  really  great  book  has 
lately  appeared  in  the  defense  of  any  of  the  other 
theories.  The  Moral  Influence  theory,  which  is 
the  closest  rival  of  the  substitutionary  interpreta- 
tion, seems  to  have  had  its  last  great  advocate  in 
this  country  in  Dr.  Bushnell.  Men  will  think  on  a 
theme  so  great  as  this,  and  finding  that  it  tran- 
scends thought,  will  more  and  more  turn  to  the 
proper  source  of  knowledge,  the  Word  of  God,  and 
this  makes  their  thinking  great. 

^  "  The  Atonement  and  the  Modern  Mind,"  p.  63. 


The  Atonement  i^c 

The  death  of  Jesus  Chi^ist  is  the  most  important 
event  that  has  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race  or  of  God's  concern  for  this  planet,  and  a  wrono- 
conception  of  its  significance  is  the  most  fatal  blunder 
that  a  human  being  ever  made.  To  miss  the  mean- 
ing of  Jesus'  death  is  to  be  without  a  gospel  at  all, 
either  to  preach  or  believe.  It  is  a  matter  of  far 
greater  importance  than  merely  understanding  it 
for  truth's  sake  ;  it  is  the  crucial  question  of  eternal 
life.  It  is  by  faith  in  Christ's  death  as  endured  for 
our  sins  that  one  is  saved.  "  Whom  God  set  forth 
to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  His  blood  to 
show  His  righteousness  because  of  the  passing  over 
of  the  sins  done  aforetime  "  (Rom.  iii.  25).  To  fail 
of  faith  in  the  blood  is  to  fail  of  forgiveness. 

"  I  must  needs  go  home  by  the  way  of  the  crosa, 
There's  no  other  way  but  this  ; 
I  shall  ne'er  get  sight  of  the  gates  of  light, 
If  the  way  of  the  cross  I  miss." 

Properly  interpreted,  it  is  the  most  fruitful  and 
the  only  saving  theme  for  the  minister.  There  are 
more  salvation  sermons  in  Denney's  characteriza- 
tions of  "  the  doctrine  of  the  death  of  Jesus "  as 
"  the  centre  of  gradty  in  the  Christian  world,"  and 
"  the  redeeming  virtue  of  the  gospel,"  "  the  hiding- 
place  of  God's  power,"  "the  inspiration  of  all 
Christian  praise,"  "  the  first  and  fundamental  thing 
in  the  gospel,"  "  and  the  foundation  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,"  "  the  one  hope  of  sinful  men,"  than 
any  man  can  preach  in  a  lifetime.     If  as  Mr.  Lepel 


156    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Griffin  says  in  bis  appreciation  of  Sikhism  and  the 
Sikhs,  "  No  creed  indures,  the  foundation  stones  of 
which  have  not  been  cemented  with  blood,"  '  it  is  also 
certainly  true  that  Christianity  must  suffer  decay  if  it 
lose  sight  of  the  precious  blood  of  Christ  as  God's 
efficacious  remedy  for  sin.  This  is  a  natural  result. 
Weakness  here  indicates  weakness  at  every  point 
in  an  evangelical  gospel — a  sentimental  moral  jus- 
tice, a  trifling  view  of  sin,  an  incarnated  divinity 
rather  than  an  incarnate  Deity,  etc.  Thoughtful 
students  of  the  subject  generally  see  this.  "  Any 
theory  which  limits  itself  to  an  influence  upon  men 
of  the  death  of  Christ  evades  some  of  the  great 
realities,  guilt,  penalty,  pardon,  or  deals  with 
them  in  a  partial  manner."  ^  "It  is  a  com- 
mon idea  that  Socinianism  (or  Unitarianism)  is 
especially  connected  with  the  denial  of  the  Incar- 
nation. It  began  historically  with  the  denial  of 
the  Atonement.  It  is  the  denial  of  the  Atonement 
that  it  always  begins  anew,  and  it  cannot  be  too 
clearly  pointed  out  that  to  begin  here  is  to  end, 
sooner  or  later,  with  putting  Christ  out  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  altogether."  ^  "  Both  writers  (Albrecht 
Eitschl  and  MacCloud  Campbell)  practically  elimi- 
nate what  is  most  distinctly  associated  with  Atone- 
ment in  both  Old  and  I^ew  Testaments.  Both 
appear  to  have  been  comparatively  insensible  to  the 
element  of  sin  which  we  call  guilt,  and,  therefore, 

1  "Great Religions  of  the  World,"  p.  149. 

2  David  Foster  Estea  in  the  Review  and  Expositor,  October,  1909. 
»  "  Death  of  Christ,"  by  Denoey,  p.  320. 


The  Atonement  157 

they  were  unsjonpathetic  to  the  process  by  which 
it  is  taken  away."  * 

The  death  of  Christ,  God's  Son,  is  a  solitary  in- 
stance in  the  biography  of  the  gods,  "  the  sublimest 
moment  in  the  moral  history  of  God."  2  ^q 
other  god,  to  whom  is  attributed  the  strength  to 
protect  himself,  ever  consented  to  suffer  in  the  stead 
of  a  sinful  and  helpless  humanity.  Gods  were  slain 
by  gods  through  enmity,  as  the  Egyptian  Osiris  was 
slain  by  Set,  but  there  is  no  example  of  a  god  vol- 
unteering for  death  at  the  hands  of  men  for  the 
good  of  mankind.  The  heathen  heroes  surpass  the 
heathen  gods ;  for  heathen  literature  furnishes  some 
of  the  most  beautiful  examples  of  the  self-sacrifice 
of  friend  for  friend.  The  gods  had  good  times. 
They  had  gala-days,  were  libidinous,  enjoyed  fes- 
tivals of  pleasure  and  exemption  from  mortal  need. 
So  much  were  they  absorbed  in  their  own  affau^s, 
that  one  of  the  heathen  poets  complained  that  "  the 
gods  decree  to  wretched  men  to  live  in  pain  and 
woe,  but  they  themselves  are  griefless." 

This  gospel  of  the  voluntary  suifering  of  the  Son 
of  God  for  the  sake  of  sinful  mankind,  is  the  very 
essential  heart  of  the  gospel,  but  the  nearer  one 
gets  to  it,  the  further  he  finds  himself  removed 
from  the  heart  of  every  other  religion.  In  moral 
maxims  and  precepts,  there  is,  it  is  admitted,  some 
ground  common  to  all  the  great  rehgions,  but  these 
do  not  touch  the  vitalizing  centre  of  religion,  the 

^  James  Stalker,  D.  D.,  in  "The  Atonement,"  p.  120. 
3  Dale. 


158    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

suffering  of  Christ  on  the  behalf  of  men.  Christ- 
lieb  calls  the  Atonement  "the  specific  novelty  in 
the  teaching  of  Christ  and  the  apostles."  It  was 
something  so  new,  that  men  were  startled  when 
they  understood  what  had  happened.  There  is  not 
a  suggestion  of  this  in  any  other  religion.  The 
great  truth  is  not  even  counterfeited  as  some  other 
Christian  truths  are,  the  incarnation,  for  example. 
It  stands  a  solitary  pyramid  on  the  plains  of  human 
history.  The  pagan  myths  so  laboriously  exploited 
by  Dr.  Frazer  in  "  The  Golden  Bough  "  exhibit  to 
the  serious  and  conscientious  student  a  measure- 
less contrast  with  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement  and  not  a  comparison  at  all.  Nothing 
less  than  disingenuous  genius  could  discover  in  them 
a  sufficient  likeness  to  warrant  a  comparison. 

As  Canon  McCulloch  has  shown,  even  these  dissim- 
ilar myths  did  not  exist  among  the  Jews,  among 
Avhom  and  through  whom  Christianity  was  origi- 
nated, but  were  so  much  abhorred  by  them  that 
Christ's  Jewish  disciples  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
concoct  a  story  based  on  them.^  How  much  less 
probable  the  theory  when  we  reflect  that  upon  this 
doctrine  these  disciples  risked  the  success  of  their  en- 
terprise and  for  it  sacrificed  fortune  and  life  !  The 
tales  from  Euripides,  translated  by  Prof.  Gilbert 
Murray,  and  made  so  much  of  by  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  ^ 
are  equally  Avithout  pertinence  in  this  great  matter, 
and    no   one  who  did   not  want   to   make  a  case 


I" 

20 


Religion  and  the  Modern  Mind,"  p.  84. 
Science  and  Immortality,"  pp.  199-200. 


The  Atonement  159 

against   evangelical   Christianity  would   have  re- 
sorted to  their  use  as  an  argument. 

So  alien  is  this  truth  of  Christianity  to  all  other 
religions  that  it  has  been  the  chief  source  of  offense 
in  Christianity.  The  superstitious  heathen  and  the 
irreligious  philosopher  alike  have  found  here  their 
chief  objection  to  the  gospel.  Men,  who  do  not 
gainsay  the  high  social  ethics  and  the  incomparable 
effects  of  Christianity,  dissent  when  we  name  the 
blood.  This  offends  human  reason  and  pride.  The 
religionist  and  the  philosopher  are  displeased  with 
it  because  it  leaves  absolutely  no  place  for  their  sys- 
tems in  the  main  work  of  religion.  To  the  JcAvish 
sects  and  to  the  Greek  philosophers,  the  preaching 
of  Paul,  which  lodged  the  efficacy  and  power  of  the 
gospel  in  the  cross,  that  gospel  was  offensively  novel 
and  radically  unique.  The  cross  transcended  the 
rites  of  one  and  the  reason  of  the  other,  and  became 
a  stumbling-block  to  the  Jew  and  foolishness  to  the 
Greek.  The  fact  of  Christ's  death  is  so  isolated 
that  it  cannot  be  understood  except  by  experimen- 
tal knowledge  of  its  reality  and  efficacy.  "  For 
you  therefore  that  believe  is  the  preciousness :  but 
for  such  as  disbelieve  the  stone  which  the  builders 
rejected,  the  same  was  made  the  head  of  the  cor- 
ner ;  and,  a  stone  of  stumbling,  and  a  rock  of  offense  " 
(1  Peter  ii.  7-8).  "  The  offense  of  the  cross  "  has 
become  a  proverb.  Men  have  opposed  it,  denied  its 
power,  necessity  and  historicity,  ridiculed  it  as 
"  murder,"  a  "  slaughter,"  and  in  various  and  malig- 
nant   ways  sought    to  defeat   the    gospel  which 


l6o    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

offers  it  as  the  hope  of  the  world.  Even  a  man  of 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge's  reputed  scholarship  and  advan- 
tages for  culture  and  refinement  is  so  exasper- 
ated by  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  the  Atonement 
that  he  caricatures  it  with  such  inelegant  terms  as 
"  the  shambles,"  "•  barbarian,"  "  pagan,"  "  crude 
materialism,"  "  blasphemy,"  and  the  man  who 
avails  himself  of  its  benefits,  a  "  cur."  The  moral 
obtuseness  which  such  language  exhibits  needs  not 
to  be  pointed  out.  This  is  but  another  of  the  many 
cases  which  illustrate  how  the  cross  is  still  the 
offense  to  the  world  and  thereby  proves  that  in 
design  and  character  it  transcends  human  wisdom. 
But  though  it  be  to  some  a  stumbling-block  and  to 
others  foolishness,  it  is  to  them  that  believe  the 
power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God, — such  a 
power  and  such  a  wisdom  as  cannot  be  approached 
by  any  other  religion.  The  Atonement  is  so 
fundamental  in  Christianity  and  all  other  religions 
and  philosophies  are  so  devoid  of  anything  lilve  it, 
that  no  compromise  between  them  is  possible  if 
this  doctrine  is  admitted  to  be  true.  This  wounds 
the  ])ride  of  the  religious  devotee  and  outrages  the 
reason  of  the  boastful  thinker.  The  intrinsic 
efficacy  and  glory  of  Christianity  are  found  in  an 
exclusive  and  peculiar  Christian  doctrine  which 
actually  demonstrates  its  moral  value  in  effects 
which  none  can  gainsay  or  duplicate.  All  other 
human  theories  are  inane  and  contemptible  in  com- 
parison. This  is  more  than  "  unaided  human 
nature  "  can  bear,  hence  the  offense  of  the  cross. 


The  Atonement  l6l 

We  cannot  forbear  quoting  Dr.  Denney  again.  "  If 
it  is  antagonism  which  is  roused  in  the  mind  by- 
Atonement,  it  is  an  antagonism  which  feels  that 
everything  is  at  stake.  The  Atonement  is  a  reality 
of  such  sort  that  it  can  make  no  compromise.  The 
man  who  fights  it,  knows  that  he  is  fighting  for  his 
life,  and  puts  all  his  strength  in  the  battle.  To 
surrender  is  to  literally  give  up  himself,  to  cease  to 
be  the  man  he  is,  and  to  become  another  man. 
For  the  modern  mind,  therefore,  as  for  the  ancient, 
the  attraction  and  the  repulsion  of  Christianity  are 
concentrated  at  the  same  point ;  the  cross  of  Christ 
is  man's  only  glory,  or  it  is  his  final  stumbling- 
block."  ' 

The  moral  dynamic  of  the  cross  is  unequalled 
and  unrivalled.  It  has  lifted  men  to  a  moral  plane 
so  far  above  that  on  which  others  move  as  to  con- 
stitute a  distinct  civilization.  The  words  of  Jesus 
"  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all 
men  unto  Myself  "  (John  xii.  32)  is  demonstrated  in 
all  the  history  of  Christianity  by  the  moral  eleva- 
tion to  which  Cliristianity  lifts  society  when  the 
cross  is  given  its  true  evangelical  place  in  the  minis- 
try of  any  times  or  country.  That,  which  the 
crucifiers  of  Christ  did  in  ignorance  and  the  preach- 
ers of  Christ  crucified  do  in  love,  has  let  loose 
convulsing  energies  in  a  world  of  moral  turpitude. 
The  earthquakes  rending  the  rocks  and  the  resurrec- 
tions at  the  hour  of  His  dea,th  were  fit  types  of  the 
moral  revolutions  Avhich  should  attend  the  preach- 
*'The  Atonement  and  the  Modern  Mind,"  pp.  15-16. 


l62    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

ing  of  His  death  everywhere.  Men  who  preach 
this  doctrine  have  been  accused  of  turning  the 
world  upside  down.  Guilt  of  the  charge  is  excu- 
sable since  this  is  what  the  world  needed  and  noth- 
ing else  could  accomplish  it. 

Christianity  must  forever  remain  unique,  distin- 
guished by  this  glorious  fact,  and  at  last  victorious 
in  the  power  of  the  Scriptural  explanation  of  it, 
the  evangelical  doctrine  of  the  Atonement.  The 
world  has  a  sense  of  need  of  that  propitiation  which 
is  alone  provided  in  the  gospel  of  the  crucified 
Saviour.  That  modern  culture  finds  no  substitute 
for  Christ,  but  gains  a  clearer  view  of  the  world's 
need  of  Him  who  died  to  save,  let  one  speak  who  is 
qualified  both  by  scholarship  and  broad  sympathies 
to  do  so.  The  study  of  the  philosophy  and  history 
of  religion,  says  Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall,  "  while 
it  has  dissolved  many  prejudices,  corrected  many 
misapprehensions  and  brought  many  admirable 
facts,  touching  the  religious  life  of  races  beyond 
the  confines  of  Cliristianity,  has  most  clearly  shoAvn 
the  point  at  which  the  great  non-Christian  faiths 
stop  short  of  power  for  the  thoroughgoing  trans- 
formation of  character,  which  is  salvation.  They 
contain  no  central  personality,  morally  adequate  to 
deal  with  the  conscience,  with  the  heart,  with  the 
will.  They  have  no  world-Saviour  to  offer.  They 
are  without  the  vitality  that  can  give  life  to  the 
soul,  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  The  more  atten- 
tively we  study  them,  estimating  their  fitness  to 
minister  to  the  religious  needs  of  man,  the  more 


The  Atonement  163 

obvious  becomes  their  moral  inadequacy.  They 
have  their  heroes  and  their  saints,  their  prophets 
and  their  sages,  but  they  have  no  one  to  take  the 
place  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world," ' 
Dr.  A.  M.  Fairbairn  says :  "  This  mode  (as  a  sub- 
stitution) of  conceiving  His  death  is  so  integral, 
alilce  to  the  history  and  thought  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, as  to  deserve  to  be  termed  its  organizing 
idea,  but  it  is  so  singular  as  to  be  without  any  par- 
allel in  the  ideas  and  customs  either  of  those  natural 
religions  which  make  the  most  of  sacrifice,  or  of 
those  natural  religions  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
compare  as  historical  with  the  Christian."^ 

The  world  needs  the  Atoning  Saviour  and  no  one 
but  the  friends  of  Christianity  have  such  a  Saviour 
to  give. 

"  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  anything 
similar  has  ever  occurred  or  will  ever  occur  again 
in  the  annals  of  eternity.  It  stands  amidst  the  lapse 
of  ages  and  the  waste  of  worlds,  a  single  and  solitary 
monument."^  In  spite  of  all  that  other  religions 
and  all  the  philosophers  can  do,  the  world  is  doomed 
if  it  is  not  told  and  persuaded  to  believe  that  there 
is  hope  in  the  cross  whereon  Deity  suffered  on 
behalf  of  humanity. 

"  Apart  from  the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no 
remission  "  (Heb  ix.  22). 

*"  Universal  Elements  of  Christian  Eeligion,"  pp.  195-196. 
'Fairbairn   in  the  **  Philosophy  of   the  Christian   Religion," 
p.  482. 

^  Bobt.  Hall  in  Sermon  on  Substitution. 


164    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

"  The  blood  of  Jesus  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from 
all  sin  "  (1  John  i.  7). 

"  And  in  none  other  is  there  salvation :  for 
neither  is  there  any  other  name  under  heaven  given 
among  men  wherein  we  must  be  saved  "  (Acts  iv.  14). 


IV 

THE   MORAL  TRANSFORMATION   OF   THE  IN- 
DIVIDUAL—THE DOCTRINE  OF  THE 
NEW  BIRTH 


H 


"  T  T  OW  remarkable  is  the  doctrine  of  Ee- 
generation,  jper  se,  as  it  is  stated  in  the 
New  Testament !  Now  this  doctrine 
is  one  of  the  distinctive  notes  of  Christianity." 
Thus  wrote  the  late  George  Komanes,  brilliant 
scientist,  during  those  repentant  but  peaceful 
months  of  his  approaching  death ;  and  it  is  a  dis- 
criminating remark.  There  is  nothing  like  this 
doctrine  or  similar  to  it  in  any  other  religion,  while 
it  is  fundamental  to  Christianity.  Christianity  will 
cease  to  be  Christianity  when  it  loses  it  and  other  re- 
ligions become  Christian  when  their  votaries  exper- 
imentally possess  it.  Christianity  does  not  consist 
in  moral  maxims,  however  it  may  excel  in  these, 
nor  in  social  ethics,  however  it  may  surpass  others 
in  their  exemplification,  but,  fundamentally  and 
essentially,  it  does  in  important  part  consist  in  the 
moral  transformation  of  men  and  women  by 
personal  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  This  doctrine 
which  is  determmant  of  the  whole  moral  value  of 
Christianity,  is  held  in  solitary  proprietorship  by 
Christianity,  and,  as  a  test  of  the  religious  question, 

165 


i66    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

rules  all  men  out  of  the  kingdom  of  God  who 
do  not  experience  it.  In  Jesus'  interview  with 
Nicodemus  the  issue  was  forced  between  Chris- 
tianity and  the  best  of  all  non-Christian  religions 
on  this  very  point,  and  Jesus  closed  all  controversy 
with  the  solemn,  "  Yerily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee, 
except  a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot  see  the 
kingdom  of  God."  To  this  honourable  interviewer 
and  exceptional  representative  of  this  best  of  all 
non-Christian  faiths,  He  spoke  personally  and  with 
directness  and  emphasis  saying,  "  Ye  must  be  born 
again."  Even  Judaism  and  a  most  honest  and 
devout  Jew  must  stand  without  the  pale  of  salvation 
and  be  denied  the  privileges  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
until  entrance  is  sought  via  jpcenitentce  and  spiritual 
regeneration.  No  other  religion  stipulates  such 
terms  and  provides  such  an  initiation.  To  become  a 
Mohammedan,  for  example,  one  needs  but  to  admit 
that  "  there  is  no  god  but  God  and  that  Mohammed 
is  His  prophet."  To  become  a  Christian  one  must 
submit  to  a  radical  moral  transformation. 

Christianity  is  a  life  and  must  begin  with  a  birth. 
If  it  were  a  creed  or  a  philosophy  only  an  intellec- 
tual formula  would  hold  the  gates  of  entrance,  but 
it  is  a  life  and  bound  by  the  laws  of  life,  it  must 
begin  as  all  life  does,  with  individual  birth ;  and 
beginning  thus,  it  separates  itself  and  distinguishes 
itself  from  all  other  religious  creeds,  all  human  and 
intellectual  philosophies,  and  stands  amidst  the  ages 
the  sole  champion  of  this  revolutionary  and  reju- 
venating experience  of  human  life.     It  is  a  doctrine 


Moral  Transformation  of  the  Individual     167 

as  peculiar  to  Christianity  as  it  is  fundamental  in  it. 
]^o  other  religion  sets  forth  God  working  in  a  man ; 
all  others  are  outside  religions  so  far  as  they  are 
religions  at  all.  Only  Jesus  has  said,  "  The  king- 
dom of  God  is  within  you,"  as  only  He  has  said, 
"  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  enter  the 
kingdom  of  God." 

This  doctrine  of  the  ]S'ew  Birth  is  the  key  to 
another  doctrine  which  "  the  modern  mind  "  thinks 
the  world  is  much  in  need  of,  but  which  the  same 
modern  mind  has  often  misstated,  namely,  the  doc- 
trine of  God's  Fatherhood.  This  doctrine  is  a 
trophy  which  the  victorious  Christ  brought  the  race 
and  belongs  alone  to  the  Christian's  inventory.  It 
too  is  a  Christian  truth.  The  declarations  about 
divinities  found  in  other  religions  do  not  comport 
with  the  attribute  of  Fatherhood.  They  do  not  re- 
veal a  nature  which  could  stand  in  this  relationship 
of  Fatherhood  as  they  do  not  provide  a  way  by 
which  man  may  come  into  the  relation  of  sonship. 

The  times  call  loudly  for  discrimination  in  the 
use  of  the  word  "  Fatherhood."  It  has  certainly 
suffered  great  violence  on  the  lips  of  the  sentimen- 
tal orator  of  our  day.  The  grandiloquent  use  of 
this  word  has  become  fashionable  ;  and  that  is  a 
dangerous  condition  for  religious  truth.  If  the  doc- 
trine of  Fatherhood  has  any  meaning  in  it  worth 
while  at  all,  if  it  is  not  a  mere  metaphor,  a  rhetor- 
ical cajolery,  certainly,  if  it  is  as  glorious  as  some 
who  would  be  thought  broad  and  liberal  and  the 
instructors  of  feebler  minds  are  endeavouring  to 


l68    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

make  us  believe,  then  correct  definition  is  the  thing 
to  be  prized.  There  is  more  than  a  Im-king  suspi- 
cion that  the  effort  to  make  it  mean  more,  I  ou^r^it 
to  say  less,  than  it  signifies  in  the  Scripture  is  due 
primarily,  not  to  grasp  of  fuller  truth  but  to  a 
lax  and  latitudinarian  regard  for  doctrine  altogether. 
Certainly  the  fatality  of  a  wrong  view  of  Father- 
hood is  that  it  fosters  a  wrong  attitude  towards 
other  vital  and  essential  Christian  doctrines.  Those 
who  have  popularized  a  liberal  doctrine  of  father- 
hood also  deny  the  divinity  of  Christ,  evangelical 
views  of  inspiration  and  of  the  Atonement.  The 
Unitarians  are  the  sponsors  for  all  of  these  heresies. 
And  yet  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  Fatherhood 
cannot  possibly  find  a  place  in  Unitarianism :  for 
there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  child  of  God  but  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  whose  person  and  office  the  Uni- 
tarians reject.  Professor  Cooper  has  shown  that 
Judaism  and  Mohammedanism,  the  two  religious 
families  which  rejDresent  in  a  great  way  this  unity 
artificially  held  by  Unitarians  have  in  them  no 
place  for  fatherliness  as  an  attribute  of  Deity.  So 
a  discussion  of  the  ^N'ew  Birth  may  well  afford  an 
opportunity  for  remarks  upon  the  doctrine  of 
Fatherhood. 

The  new  birth  is  indeed  the  key  to  a  correct  view 
of  Fatherhood.  Birth,  sonship  and  fatherhood, 
taken  naturally,  presuppose  procreation.  ISTothing 
but  the  most  tortuous  wrenching  of  language  can 
make  less  of  them.  Those  who  spread  the  term 
Fatherhood  over  the  race  of  sinners  and  saints 


Moral  Transformation  of  the  Individual     169 

alike,  instead  of  confining  it  to  the  spiritual  house- 
hold of  God,  rob  the  word  of  its  fullness,  pauperize 
sonship  and  minimize  the  doctrine  of  the  New 
Birth.  These  ideas  stand  together  for  sublime 
fundamentals  of  Christian  doctrine  and  experience, 
presuppose  each  other  and  are  mutually  dependent, 
and  are  too  rich  for  any  other  faith  or  philosophy 
to  duplicate.  Scriptural  Fatherhood  holds  in  itself 
the  deepest  and  highest  Christian  experiences.  To 
hold  out  to  men  in  their  sins  the  hope  of  Father- 
hood without  the  experience  of  the  begotten  life  is 
to  cheat  them  of  their  highest  blessing  and  disap- 
point Deity's  passion  for  paternity.  God  craves 
the  privilege  of  spiritual  parentage.  "  God  as 
Father  wants  to  make  and  keep  a  straight  line  of 
spiritual  heredity  from  Himself  to  us."  ^ 

The  Fatherhood  of  God  taught  by  Christ  and  the 
jN'ew  Testament  writers  is  not  so  much  an  attribute 
as  a  relationship.  It  connects  God's  nature  with 
man's.  It  is  more  than  love,  that  is,  attitude ;  God 
loves  all  men,  but  "  The  love  of  God  is  the  readi- 
ness for  Fatherhood,"  which  love  waxes  many-fold 
towards  His  begotten  child  who  loves  Him. 
Fatherhood  is  that  new  dignity  which  a  birth 
brings  to  parent  and  child.  It  designates  the  sub- 
limest  fact  in  spiritual  religion.  In  regeneration 
God  becomes  Father  and  the  converted  sinner  "  be- 
gotten of  God,"  "  born  again,"  becomes  ''  a  new 
creature,"  a  "  babe,"  a  "  son,"  a  "  new  man."  The 
truth  must  not  be  obscured  that  regeneration  is  a 
^See  Clark's  "Philosophy  of  Christian  Experience,"  p.  80,  etc. 


lyo    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

creative  or  generative  act  on  God's  part  and  an  ex- 
perience on  man's  part.  It  is  the  life  man  receives 
in  the  act  of  regeneration  more  than  any  superin- 
tending care  or  universal  benignity  that  makes  that 
experience  momentous.  Both  mark  a  privilege 
which  belongs  to  a  Christian  only.  Eegeneration 
is  the  profoundest  experience  of  the  soul  in  all  its 
course  between  the  gates  of  natural  life  and  phys- 
ical death. 

The  man  who  squeezes  the  doctrine  of  re- 
generation out  of  the  word  "  Fatherhood,"  has 
wrought  disaster  upon  many  souls.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  spiritual  life  without  spiritual  birth. 
Huxley  says,  ''  No  claim  to  biological  nationality  is 
valid  except  birth." '  Henry  Drummond  elab- 
orates this  in  "Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual 
World."  Jesus  says,  "  That  which  is  born  of  the 
flesh  is  flesh,  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  spirit 
is  spirit  "  (John  iii.  6).  Huxley  corroborates  Jesus. 
Science  affirms  the  principle  in  the  realm  of 
the  physical;  theology  affirms  it  in  the  realm 
of  spirit.  "  As  many  as  received  Him,  to  them 
gave  He  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God" 
(John  i.  12).  Such  only  are  His  sons  and  to  such 
only  is  He  Father.  The  man  who  fails  to  receive 
Him  forfeits  even  the  possibility  of  sonship.  Men 
are  radically  differentiated  according  as  they  be- 
come Christian  or  remain  non-Christian :  "  He 
that  hath  the  Son  hath  life  and  he  that  hath  not 
the  Son  of  God  hath  not  life  "  (John  v.  12).     Henry 

*  "  Advance  of  Science,"  p.  120. 


Moral  Transformation  of  the  Individual     171 

W.  Clark's  thoughtful  book,  "  The  Philosophy  of 
the  Christian  Experience,"  quoted  above  shows  the 
essential  place  of  regeneration  in  the  evolutionary 
process  for  those  who  hold  that  view  of  things.  The 
New  Testament  is  so  absolutely  original  at  this  point 
as  to  be  almost  startling,  yet  it  is  more  and  more 
evident  that  the  last  word  of  science  will  corroborate 
the  Scriptures  on  this  distinguishing  doctrine. 

Of  course  God  is  the  Creator,  the  merciful  Bene- 
factor of  all  men,  and  His  good  providences  are 
over  all ;  but  He  is  not,  as  the  oratorical  wheedler 
implies.  Father  in  any  such  sentimental  sense  as  to 
constitute  a  doctrine  which  feeds  the  self-compla- 
cency of  the  world-lover  who  neither  knows  nor 
cares  for  the  regenerating  work  of  His  Holy  Spirit, 
trusts  to  the  Atonement  which  Christ  made  on  the 
cross,  nor  bears  a  cross  for  Christ.  Jesus  taught 
that  ui  order  to  "  be  the  children  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  "  we  must  love  and  endure  the 
hate  and  the  hurt  of  those  who  are  not  His  children 
but  the  children  of  the  devil  (Matt.  v.  44-47). 
"  Wherefore  come  out  from  among  them,  and  be 
ye  separate,  saith  the  Lord,  and  touch  not  the 
unclean  thing  ;  and  I  will  receive  you,  and  will  be 
a  Father  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  My  sons  and 
daughters,  saith  the  Lord  Almighty"  (2  Cor.  vi. 
17-18).  The  children  of  God  are  those  whom  He 
has  "  predestinated  unto  the  adoption  of  children 
by  Jesus  Christ  "  through  whom  such  have  "  access 
by  one  Spirit  unto  the  Father  "  and  become  thereby 
"  fellow  citizens  with  the  saints  of  the  household  of 


172     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

God."  Others  are  "dead  in  trespasses  and  sins," 
they  "  walk  according  to  the  course  of  this  world," 
they  are  "  the  children  of  wrath,"  "  without  Christ 
being  aliens  "  (Eph.  ii.).  Jesus  and  the  Father  are 
one  (John  x.  30).  The  man  who  refuses  to  have 
Christ  for  Saviour  refuses  to  have  God  for  Father. 
He  is  without  God  and  without  hope  in  the  world 
(Eph.  ii.  12).  No  man  knows  the  Father  but  he  to 
whom  the  Son  reveals  Him  (Luke  x.  22). 

This  doctrine  goes  to  the  roots  of  moral  being  as 
no  ethic,  no  culture,  no  social  science  nor  legal 
statute  can  ever  go.  The  springs  of  moral  be- 
haviour are  reached  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the 
operation  by  which  He  effects  the  new  birth,  yea, 
the  very  genesis  of  character  is  reached  in  this 
supernatural  work.  "  Conversion  is  the  re-con- 
stituting of  our  moral  being.  Salvation  means 
being  new-born." '  Regeneration  does  not  consist 
in  a  man's  changing  his  mind  so  much  as  in  having 
his  heart  changed  ;  not  so  much  in  a  reforma- 
tion of  outward  conduct  as  an  inward  transforma- 
tion. It  is  less  a  voluntary  act  on  man's  part  than 
an  omnipotent  act  on  God's  part.  Eegeneration  is 
God's  work  and  man's  experience.  "  Sonship  does 
not  consist  in  ethical  likeness  only,  but  also  in  a 
change  wrought  in  the  nature  and  character  by 
direct  agency  of  God,  which  is  the  antecedent  and 
cause  of  ethical  likeness  to  God."^ 

There   is   a   background   of   dark,   deep   human 

'  Clark,  "  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Experience,"  p.  73. 
^  Professor  Alexander  in  "  The  Son  of  Man,"  p.  195. 


Moral  Transformation  of  the  Individual    173 

depravity  to  this  Christian  doctrine  of  the  New 
Birth.  Whatever  be  one's  theory,  there  is  no  fact 
of  human  life  more  characteristic  of  the  entire  race 
than  this  of  wrong  moral  condition.  Says  Clark  in 
his  "  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Experience,"  "  It 
is  a  matter  of  common  acknowledgment  that  some- 
how or  other,  human  life  has  missed  its  way."  * 
The  religion  which  takes  a  superficial  account  of 
the  universal  fact  of  sin,  common  to  the  experi- 
ence of  every  moral  creature,  and  by  which  all 
men  have  missed  the  mark  is  extremely  defect- 
ive ;  it  cannot  possibly  be  the  religion  which  the 
race  or  any  part  of  it  needs.  Christianity  alone 
has  a  thoroughgoing  doctrine  of  sin  as  it  alone  has 
a  remedy  for  it.  The  fact  of  sin  indicates  the  chief 
need  for  religion.  Historians,  theologians  and 
philosophers  agree  as  to  the  fact.  Aristotle  rec- 
ognizes it  in  his  doctrine  of  "  The  slope,"  in  which 
he  treats  of  the  awful  gravitation  of  appetite  and 
passion.  Plato  speaks  of  the  "  wild  beast  of  all 
that  is  within  me."  Pascal  says,  "  We  are  born  in 
umnghteousness,"  and  Kant  recognizes  the  indwell- 
ing of  an  "  evil  principle."  Shakespeare,  philoso- 
pher as  well  as  poet,  says,  "  All  is  oblique  :  there  is 
nothing  level  in  our  accursed  nature."  Tennyson 
"finds  a  baseness  in  his  blood."  It  was  a  dis- 
tinguished jurist  who  said,  "  If  those  who  preach 
had  been  lawyers  previous  to  entering  the  min- 
istry, they  would  know  and  say  more  about 
the    depravity  of    the    human    heart    than    they 

1  Page  20. 


174    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

do." '  Byron  spoke  of  the  "  ineradicable  taint  of 
sin."  The  modern  learning  has  left  this  awful  fact 
unchanged,  whatever  theory  some  may  propose  by 
which  to  account  for  it  or  interpret  it.  Says 
Prof.  William  De  Witt  Hyde  of  the  doctrine  of 
original  depravity,  "  The  modern  historical  concep- 
tion of  human  evolution  brings  it  out  tenfold  more 
clear  than  when  it  was  proclaimed  by  lonely  seers 
like  Kant  and  Calvin  and  Augustine  and  Paul. 
Sin  is  the  most  universal,  the  most  stubborn,  the 
most  cruel,  the  most  ineradicable  element  in  human 
nature."  ^  And  agam  :  "  In  setting  itself  to  deal 
with  man's  moral  condition,  religion,  therefore,  ad- 
dresses itself  to  a  real  and  living  need."^  Some 
of  the  moderns.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  and  Dr.  Charles 
Elliott  in  the  company,  treat  sin  as  inconsequential 
or  an  actual  benefit  to  man,  a  necessary  and  helpful 
experience.  They  remind  one  of  Browning's  ex- 
uberant optimism  in  the  line  "  That's  what  all  the 
blessed  evil's  for." 

It  is  for  a  race  of  men  with  proclivities  to  sin 
that  religion  must  provide  help,  and  nothing  but 
religion  can  do  it.  It  is  equally  certain  that 
Christianity  is  the  only  religion  that  makes  such 
pro\asion.  NoAvhere  else  is  sin  so  exceedingly  sin- 
ful as  in  Christianity,  and  nowhere  else  is  the  sin- 
ner provided   with   absolute  forgiveness.     Edwin 

^See  strong's  "  Systematic  Theology,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  580-581. 
2  "  Outlines  of  Social  Theology,"  p.  92. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  4;  see  also  page  42  "Philosophy  of  Christian  Ex- 
perience," by  Fairbairn. 


Moral  Transformation  of  the  Individual    175 

Arnold  gives  us  this  translation  of  Buddhistic  wis- 
dom: 

*'  Away  with  those  that  preach  to  us  the  washing  off  of  sin— 
Thine  ownself  is  the  stream  for  thee  to  make  ablution  in  ; 
In  self-restraint  it  rises  pure— flows  clear  in  the  tide  of  truth, 
By  widening  banks  of  wisdom  in  waves  of  peace  and  truth. 
Bathe  there,  thou  son  of  Pandu,  with  reverence  and  rite, 
For  ne'er  yet  was  water  wet  could  wash  the  spirit  white." 

(Proverbial  Wisdom.) 

There  are  many  echoes  of  this  in  modern  thought. 
There  is  outside  of  Christianity  no  better  gospel 
for  the  sinner  than  this.  The  gospel  of  Christ 
meets  the  case  of  inborn  sin  with  its  doctrine  of 
re-birth.  It  starts  character  out  of  a  new  root. 
The  nature  of  God  and  the  nature  of  man  both  re- 
quire this  :  "  Given  an  eternal  God,  whose  whole 
being  and  activity  make  for  righteousness ;  and 
given  also  an  immortal  soul  that  has  in  itself  the 
sense  of  its  own  unrighteousness,  and  one  or  the 
other  must  change  if  they  are  to  dwell  together 
in  harmony  and  heaven."'  With  his  nature  un- 
changed, the  nature  of  man's  deeds  could  not  be 
changed.  Character  colours  conduct.  Man's  nat- 
ural depravity  naturally  defiles  his  behaviour.  "  A 
good  man  out  of  a  good  treasure  of  his  heart  bring- 
eth  forth  that  which  is  good  ;  and  the  evil  man  out  of 
the  evil  treasure  bringeth  forth  that  which  is  evil  " 
(Luke  vi.  45).  "  Who  can  bring  a  clean  thing  out 
of  an  unclean?  Not  one"  (Job  xiv.  14).  "That 
which    is    born   of   flesh   is   flesh "   (John   iii.   6). 

D.  W.  Faunce,  "  The  Christian  Experience,"  p.  184. 


176    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

There  can  issue  no  spiritual  quality  out  of  a  carnal 
character.  That  religion  which  can  give  the  sinner 
a  new  birth  and  therefore  a  new  start,  is  entitled  to 
special  privileges  in  the  competitorship  for  popular 
favour  which  the  great  religions  are  conducting. 

Faith,  that  act  of  the  soul  by  which  this  experi- 
ence is  procurable,  is  both  characteristic  of  Chris- 
tianity and  divisive  of  men.  Men  come  into  this 
experience  of  the  new  birth  by  personal  faith  in 
Christ  alone.  This  doctrine  of  faith  is  as  exclu- 
sively Christian  as  is  the  New  Birth.  ISTo  other  re- 
ligion has  anything  like  it  and  no  man  can  be- 
come a  Christian  without  it.  "  Without  faith  it 
is  impossible  to  please  God  "  (Heb.  xi.  6).  "  Faith 
Cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of 
God  "  (Eom.  x.  17).  "  There  is  one  Lord,  one 
faith,  one  baptism  "  (Eph.  iv.  5).  That  faith  is  per- 
sonal repose  of  the  soul  on  the  Christ.  No  other 
sort  of  faith  can  bring  to  one  that  experience  of  the 
new  birth  which  makes  him  a  Christian.  This 
evangelical  truth  is  the  treasure-trove  of  the  Chris- 
tian. Faith  looks  for  merit  to  Christ  and  not  man, 
and  foreign  to  it  are  all  oracles,  shrines  and  sacer- 
dotalisms. "  Its  antithesis  is  the  work  which  cre- 
ates merit,  the  action  which  establishes  a  claim  to 
reward ;  but  its  correlative  is  grace,  the  spontane- 
ous energy  of  the  God  who  made  man  for  Himself, 
effecting  His  conscious  appropriation  by  the  man 
He  made. 

"  Now  faith  so  understood,  is  an  idea  most  char- 
acteristic of  the   Christian  religion  ;  in  no  other 


Moral  Transformation  of  the  Individual    177 

does  it  hold  the  same  place  or  fulfill  the  same  func- 
tion. .  .  .  The  Christian  was  the  first  religion, 
as  a  religion,  to  say  that  custom  has  no  worth,  that 
work  has  no  merit,  that  the  only  thing  that  can 
avail  before  God  is  the  righteousness  He  gives  and 
faith  receives.  .  .  .  Hence  Christianity,  in 
making  faith  the  subjective  pivot  of  religion,  sepa- 
rated itself  from  uniform  and  invariable  custom, 
boldly  made  itself  independent  of  usage  and  insti- 
tution and  brought  the  individual  and  the  absolute 
God  face  to  face.  It  was  the  only  mode  in  which 
a  religion  of  universal  ideas  could  have  been  real- 
ized by  universal  man."  * 

And  yet  while  discarding  human  merit,  this 
experience  of  the  new  birth  which  faith  instrumen- 
tally  secures  begets  an  order  of  moral  excellencies 
peculiarly  its  own,  and  which  far  exceed  the  mere 
ethical  elements  in  human  conduct.  This  is  a 
glorious  paradox.  The  worldly-wise  philosopher  is 
sorely  perplexed  by  it.  Perfect  morality,  as  has 
been  shown,  is  a  standard  impossible  of  attainment 
without  moral  transformation,  but  society  calls  for 
something  even  superior  to  morality.  The  ideal 
character  is  not  fulfilled  by  a  perfect  and  rigid 
morality.  Morality  must  be  infused  with  a  cer- 
tain spiritual  tone  which  mellows  it,  a  certain  tem- 
per which  adorns  it.  Christianity  alone  imparts 
this.  The  student  of  religion  must  distinguish  be- 
tween virtues  and  graces.     Christianity  has  added 

^A.   M.   Fairbairn,   "Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion," 
pp.  548-559. 


lyS    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

the  latter  to  the  world's  inventory  of  personal  and 
social  values.  The  moralist  is  a  stranger  to  such 
adornments  as  humility,  meekness  and  such  like. 
These  latter  are  Christian  social  accomplishments. 
A  man  may  have  virtues,  but  these  do  not  of  them- 
selves make  one  an  ideal  member  of  a  spiritual 
society.  A  man  may  be  truthful,  honest,  sober,  in- 
deed boast,  as  usually  the  moralist  will,  of  a  long 
catalogue  of  virtues,  and  yet  be  an  undesirable  com- 
panion to  finer  souls.  He  may  be  cold,  stiff,  severe 
and  uncongenial.  Christianity  supplies  the  defi- 
ciency of  such  characters.  It  adds  to  the  virtues, 
which  it  exhibits  as  no  other  religion  does,  the 
graces,  of  which  it  is  the  sole  dispenser.  "  What- 
soever things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  hon- 
est, whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things 
are  lovely  and  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  re- 
port ;  if  there  be  any  virtue,"  Christianity  sets 
them  forth  as  they  were  never  seen  before  ;  but  to 
these,  it  imparts  a  peculiar  Christian  spirit  which 
warms  character  and  makes  it  winsome.  To  those 
who  are  "  partakers  of  the  divine  nature "  by  re- 
generation, it  adds  "  To  virtue,  knowledge  ;  and  to 
knowledge  temperance  ;  and  to  temperance  patience; 
and  to  patience  godliness ;  and  to  godliness  broth- 
erly kindness  ;  and  to  brotherly  kindness  charity  " 
(2  Peter  iv.  7).  A  man's  virtue  and  honesty  and 
truthfulness  have  finer  quality  if  he  is  a  Christian. 
The  Christian  graces  of  patience,  godliness,  broth- 
erly kindness  and  charity  intone  the  virtues  and 
give  them  Christian  social  manners.     The  graces 


Moral  Transformation  of  the  Individual     179 

which  fit  men  and  women  for  heavenly  citizenship 
qualify  them  also  for  the  richest  social  fellowship. 
It  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise  that  those  religions 
which  are  impotent  to  produce  these  graces  nec- 
essarily fail  to  produce  a  high  order  of  civilization 
and  society.  The  Christian  graces  impart  social 
harmony  to  the  exalted  moral  virtues  which  Chris- 
tianity fosters.  Thus  honesty  becomes  merciful, 
benevolent,  philanthropic,  and  the  truth  is  spoken 

in  love. 

And  these  graces  are  the   direct  result  of  the 

operation  of  God  in  regeneration  and  the  subsequent 
work  of  the  regenerating  Spirit.  They  are  not 
found  in  lives  where  there  has  been  no  experience 
of  divine  grace.  The  graces  which  bless  the  lives 
of  others  are  themselves  produced  by  that  grace 
which  saves  a  man.  Eegeneration  heightens  the 
moral  quality  and  value  of  a  man.  How  often 
have  we  met  with  unlovableness  and  social  unprof- 
itableness in  men  who  were  moral  beyond  the 
prevailing  standards  of  their  community.  That  in 
them  which  properly  tuned  would  have  attracted 
and  blessed  all  men  repelled  you.  The  chords  of 
virtue  were  harsh  and  theu^  sympathies  were 
sluggish.  Their  morality  was  obtrusive  and  they 
were  proud,  boastful,  self-satisfied,  and  indifferent 
to  or  even  intolerant  of  the  morallv  weak  and  un- 
fortunate,  the  very  opposite  of  a  humble,  meek  and 
prayerful  spirit.  The  uncongeniality  of  haughty 
self-righteousness  is  only  exceeded  by  loathsome 
depravity.     The  two  need  alike  regenerating  grace 


i8o    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

of  God  to  fit  them  for  the  society  of  the  pure  and 
humble  here  and  that  which  we  hope  to  enjoy  in 
the  heavenly  land.  As  Henry  Drummond  says, 
"  The  soul  was  made  to  be  converted  "  and  until  it 
is  converted  it  is  as  far  from  the  possibilities  of 
manhood  as  the  worm  in  the  chrysalis  is  from  the 
butterfly.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Jr.,  the  best 
product  of  distinguished  parentage  and  intellectual 
culture  found  in  himself  a  need  and  experienced  a 
change  which  he  afterwards  declared  that  he  dis- 
covered to  be  the  need  of  the  outcast  and  offscour- 
ing  of  our  social  order  for  whom  his  experience  of 
grace  had  begotten  a  loving  solicitude  and  made 
him  their  friend  and  helper.  Regeneration  is  the 
need  of  the  race,  and  it  is  not  produced  nor  enjoyed 
outside  of  Christianity  and  without  personal  faith 
in  Christ.  The  religion  of  the  future  will  contain 
the  essence  of  Christianity  and  possess  the  power  to 
beget  this  experience. 


THE  MORAL  INVIGORATION  OF  THE  INDIVID- 
UAL—THE DOCTRINE  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

THE  supreme  value  of  Christianity  lies  in 
the  fact  that  it  exactly  meets  human 
need.  In  a  high  and  worthy  sense,  it  is 
utilitarian.  It  meets  the  practical  necessities  of 
men  and  renders  actual  present  service.  It  came 
forth  from  its  founder,  equipped  with  certain 
qualities  and  potentialities  which  peculiarly  fit  it 
for  human  ministries.  It  is  distinguished  by  a 
certain  vital  and  vitalizing  quality  suited  to  a  world 
of  moral  weakness.  This  is  a  chief  value  and  con- 
stitutes a  valid  argument  for  its  universality. 

That  which  from  the  first  demonstrably  most 
distinguished  Christianity  was  its  moral  energy. 
By  His  mysterious  power  Jesus  held  the  world  in 
wide-eyed  wonder.  His  personal,  moral  vitality 
was  an  enigma.  The  contagion  of  strength  which 
He  exhaled  vitalized  those  who  were  run  down  in 
moral  strength  and  wrought  transformation  in  His 
circle.  Victims  of  sin  and  misfortune  had  their 
maladies  rebuked  by  His  almighty  word  and  felt 
the  instant  thrill  of  a  new  and  strange  energy  in 
their  beings.  Pentecost  marked  the  distribution  of 
this  power  among  His  immediate  spiritual  heirs, 
and  by  His  will  it  was  entailed  as  an  inalienable 

181 


i82     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

inheritance  to  His  followers  for  all  time.  All  who 
profess  the  heirship  have  a  right  to  claim  a  full 
inheritance  of  Christ's  bequest  of  power. 

The  one  unanswerable  argument  for  Christianity 
has  been  the  product  of  this  transforming  spiritual 
energy.     This    divine    life   which   attends  it  and 
inheres  in  it,  which  reinvigorates  depleted  moral 
manhood    and    rehabilitates   the    very    refuse   of 
society  ;  this  is  a  unique  force  operating  wherever 
a  pure  Christianity  spreads.     This  which  character- 
izes it   in   the  first    Christian  century  still  distin- 
guishes   it    from  all   ethics,   all  philosophies,   all 
esthetic  devices  and  emollients  and  from  all  other 
religions,  past   and   present.     The  gospel  itself  is 
not  more  unique  than  the  type  of  civilization  which 
it  produces.     The  peculiar  faith  begets  a  peculiar 
people  (Titus   ii.  4-1  Pet.  ii.  9).     John  TuUoch's 
remark  does  not  yet  need  revision :  "  Christianity," 
he  said,  "  is  the  only  vitalizing  spiritual  power  in 
the    world."     A   moral   paralysis  and   a   spiritual 
numbness  exist  everywhere  outside  of  the  sphere  of 
Christianity's    influence.      Dishonesty,   lying    and 
spiritual  insensibility  mark  the  extent  of  the  fatal 
sluggishness  which  has  crept  over  all  non-Christian 
peoples. 

This  power  which  Christianity  alone  demon- 
strates, and  of  which  it  is  the  sole  dispensator,  meets 
the  race  at  the  identical  point  of  its  greatest  need. 
Man  is  not  only  bad ;  he  is  weak.  His  plight  is 
worse  than  that  of  a  sinner  pleading  forgiveness, 
though  he  needs  that  in  a  measure  to  bankrupt 


Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual    183 

every  other  religion  in  the  world ;  he  has  suffered 
moral  enervation  and  spiritual  insensibility  as  an 
effect  of  his  sins.  Forgiveness  is  not,  therefore, 
sufficient  to  meet  his  needs  and  enable  him  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  his  gratitude  for  forgiveness. 
If  only  forgiven  he  is  as  helpless. as  ever  he  was  to 
fulfill  the  ideal  which  the  Forgiver  has  for  him. 
The  enfeebling  effects  of  his  sin  would  defeat  him 
if  forgiveness  were  all  that  religion,  even  a  religion 
that  offers  forgiveness,  provided  for  him.  Chris- 
tianity, with  its  moral  energy  left  out,  would  make 
man's  case  most  discouraging ;  for  it  fixes  for  him 
a  moral  ideal  vastly  more  lofty  than  he  is  elsewhere 
required  to  realize.  How  shall  he,  weak  from 
debilitating  sin,  climb  so  high  ? 

These  considerations  force  to  the  front  the  su- 
periority of  Christianity  as  a  working  theory  of 
life.  If  we  are  to  approximate  the  ideal  which 
comes  to  every  man  whose  spiritual  nature  is  gen- 
uinely aroused,  even  for  a  moment,  we  know  there 
must  be  found  ^'  a  power  not  ourselves  that  makes 
for  righteousness. "  Some  great  good  physician  must 
demonstrate  a  wondrous  skill  in  us  or  the  fatal 
palsy  of  sin  in  our  members  will  make  of  our  best 
efforts  at  an  upright  life  but  a  tottering  and  a  fail- 
ure. 

*'  'Tis  life  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 
More  life  and  fuller  that  we  want, 
O  !  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant." 

Hail  the  self-announcement  of  the    soul's  only 


184     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Physician :  ''I  came  that  they  may  have  life 
and  may  have  it  more  abundantly"  (John  x. 
10).  Reuss  penetrates  deeply  into  the  meaning 
of  the  gospel  at  this  point  when  he  discovers 
that  life  is  the  primary  idea  of  the  apostoKc 
conception  of  Christianity  and  declares  that  this 
idea  of  life  was  one  "  far  surpassing  any  that 
had  been  expressed  in  the  formulas  of  the  cur- 
rent philosophy  or  theology  and  resting  upon  prem- 
ises and  conceptions  altogether  different."  "  The 
idea  of  life  as  it  is  conceived  in  this  system  im- 
plies the  idea  of  power."  '  Men  need  moral  ideals, 
high  and  fascinating  ends  to  live  for.  Happy 
the  man  who  dreams  of  lofty  moral  attainment, 
if  he  knows  where  to  find  resources  of  power  for  its 
realization  :  but  most  miserable  of  all  men  is  he  to 
whom  is  given  the  ravishing  vision  of  sublime 
moral  heights  and  is  left  to  his  own  moral  powers 
to  reach  them.  He  finds  with  Paul  the  command- 
ment, which  was  ordained  to  life,  to  be  unto  death 
and  his  lament  is  that  of  this  apostle,  who  not  only 
universalized  Christianity,  but  personalized  man- 
kind's experience  :  "  I  am  carnal,  sold  under  sin  for 
that  which  I  do,  I  know  not :  for  not  what  I  would, 
that  do  I  practice,  but  what  I  hate,  that  I  do.  .  .  . 
Wretched  man  that  I  am  !  "  (Rom.  vii.).  It  was 
from  a  depth  like  this  that  he  looked  up  and  be- 
held the  return  of  his  vision,  and  exclaimed,  "  I 
thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ;  .  .  . 
for  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus 
*  "  History  of  Christian  Philosophy  iu  the  Apostolic  Age,"  p.  496. 


Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual     185 

made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death ;  for 
what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak 
through  the  flesh,  God  sending  His  own  Son  in  the 
likeness  of  sinful  flesh  and  for  sin  condemned  sin 
in  the  flesh,  that  the  ordinance  of  the  law  might 
be  fulfilled  in  us  who  walked  not  after  the  flesh  but 
after  the  Spmt.     ...     The  Sph-it  also  helpeth 
our    infirmity"   (Rom.    vii.,    viii.).     There    is    no 
ethic  like  that !     Christianity  is  the  most  discour- 
aging religion  in  the  world  if  a  man  takes  nothing 
more  of  it  than  its  moral  maxuns  and  ethical  stand- 
ards and  sets  out  unaided  to  unitate  its  great  Ex- 
emplar.    That  man  who  does  not  start  from  the 
Atonement  will  not  progress  far  in  Christlikeness. 
It  is  Christ  Crucified  that  is  "  the  power  of  God  and 
wisdom   of  God,"  and  is  "  made  unto  us  wisdom 
from  God  and  righteousness  and  sanctification,  and 
redemption  "  (1  Cor.  ii.  24-30). 

Now  there  is  an  Agent  who  makes  effectual  the 
power  inhering  in  and  issuing  from  Christ's  cross 
and  His  tomb — the  power  of  His  crucifixion  and  of 
His  resurrection.  Not  the  Christ  living  a  life  to  be 
imitated,  but  the  Christ  giving  a  life  to  be  appro- 
priated lets  us  into  the  blessings  of  His  gospel.  It 
is  the  power  ^vhich  resides  in  His  death  and  resur- 
rection that  affords  us  strength  to  live  after  the 
pattern  of  His  life.  This  power  was  the  bequest 
of  the  now  departed  Lord.  He  had  riches  of 
power  and  left  it  to  us  as  His  kinsmen  and  heirs. 
The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  administrator  of  this 
bounty.     "When  the  Comforter  is  come  whom  I 


l86     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

will  send  unto  you  from  the  Father,  even  the  S])irit 
of  truth  which  proceedeth  from  the  Father,  He  shall 
bear  witness  of  Me."  "  He  shall  take  of  Mine  and 
shall  declare  it  unto  you.  All  things  whatsoever 
the  Father  hath  are  Mine  ;  therefore  said  I  that  He 
taketh  of  Mine  and  shall  declare  it  unto  you  "  (John 
XV.,  xvi.).  "  Ye  shall  receive  power  when  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  come  upon  you  "  (Acts  i.  8). 

Perhaps  there  is  not  among  the  unique  doctrines 
of  Christianity  one  more  distinctively  Christian  nor 
a  fact  more  absolutely  unparalleled  by  other  relig- 
ions than  this  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  this 
consequent  fact  of  spiritual  dynamics  for  man's 
moral  impotency.  Judaism  holds  a  strong  faith  in 
one  God,  as  does  also  Mohammedanism,  though  the 
God  of  the  latter  is  so  cold  and  hard  a  sovereign  as 
to  fall  a  little  short  of  a  caricature  of  the  Chris- 
tian's God,  who  is  Love.  But  though  in  their  ideas 
of  Deity  these  religions  approach  Christianity  to 
some  degree,  they  do  not  hold  anything  even  simi- 
lar to  this  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  an 
idea  entirely  foreign  to  every  other  great  religion. 
This  deficiency  constitutes  an  unlikeness  at  the 
very  point  where  the  power  of  Christianity  resides, 
the  very  source  of  the  Christian's  help.  This  fact 
may  well  account  for  the  moral  delinquencies  so 
generally  observed  in  these  Eastern  faiths. 

Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith  in  his  book,  "  The  Uplift  of 
China,"  pays  high,  some  will  think  too  high,  tribute 
to  the  ethics  of  Confucianism  and  Buddhism,  and 
then  closes  his  review  of  the  first  with  these  signifi- 


Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual    187 

cant  words :  "  But  it  altogether  fails  to  recognize 
the  essential  inability  of  human  nature  to  fulfill 
these  high  behests,  and  for  this  inability,  it  has 
neither  explanation  nor  remedy.  .  .  .  Con- 
fucianism fails  to  produce  on  any  important  scale, 
the  character  which  it  commends.  While  it  has 
unified  and  consolidated  the  Chinese  people,  it  has 
not,  as  the  Great  Learning  enjoins,  renovated  them, 
and  it  never  can  do  so." '  Of  Confucianism  and 
Buddhism  combined,  he  says,  "  The  moral  precepts 
of  Buddhism  and  Confucianism  elicit  our  praise,  but 
their  powerlessness  to  uplift  the  people  morally  is 
evidenced  by  the  prevalence  of  deceit,  dishonesty, 
lying,  mutual  suspicion  and  the  total  eclipse  of  in- 
sincerity."^ 

Christianity  presents  in  the  Scriptures  a  moral 
standard  and  ethical  ideal  which  excels  Confucian- 
ism and  Buddhism,  when  the  sacred  books  of  these 
cults  are  most  charitably  construed.  But  truth 
speaks  loudest  when  it  speaks  by  example.  This 
standard  set  up  in  the  precepts  of  Christianity, 
though  excelling  all  others,  is  enforced  and  illus- 
trated in  a  perfect  personal  example.  Jesus  prac- 
ticed what  He  preached,  and  He  left  to  His  followers 
power  for  a  like  realization  of  the  ideal.  "  Colton 
wrote  more  moral  maxims  than  any  man  of  his  age 
and  violated  them  all."^  In  his  own  failure,  as 
well  as  in  the  fact  that  he  did  not  bequeath  to  his 

>  **  The  Uplift  of  China,"  pp.  99-100.  '  Ibid.,  p.  110. 

^''  Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation,  by  an  American  Cit- 
izen,'' p.  273. 


l88     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

pupils  any  power  to  realize  his  moral  standards, 
Colton  was  like  Confucius,  Buddha  and  the  rest. 
Not  one,  we  may  he  sure,  of  all  who  have  pro- 
claimed worthy  moral  ideals  has  fulfilled  them, 
with  this  one  exception  of  the  great  Exemplar. 
In  Christianity  aspiring  men  may  find  the  incen- 
tive and  help  of  both  the  loftiest  precepts  and 
a  perfect  example.  They  may  both  know  what 
manner  of  men  they  ought  to  be  and  see  how  they 
may  be  such  men.  J^othing  higher  and  better  than 
perfect  precept  wrought  into  perfect  personal  ex- 
ample could  be  conceived  by  human  wisdom. 

But  this  is  not  the  last  word  for  Christianity. 
Divine  Wisdom  goes  beyond  this  and  in  "  Christ 
crucified  the  power  of  God  "  makes  atonement  for 
the  sins  of  those  who  have  failed,  and  in  response 
to  faith  in  that  death  gives  them  a  new  birth  and 
a  young  and  fresh  moral  vigour ;  and  then  gives 
them  a  Helper,  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  so  helps  their 
infirmities  that  the  righteousness  of  perfect  precept 
and  perfect  example  may  be  fulfilled  in  them  while 
they  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit. 

"Faith  is  the  grasping  of  almighty  power; 
The  hand  of  man  laid  on  the  arm  of  God." 

Let  us  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  moral  energy 
of  Christianity  constitutes  a  vast  difference  between 
it  and  heathenism,  between  it  and  philosophy,  it  and 
mere  moralism.  Grant  to  these  latter  the  same 
motive  and  the  same  ideals  that  belong  to  Chris- 
tianity and  there  would  still  remain  the  essential 


Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual     189 

difference  between  a  method  and  a  life.  They  will 
turn  more  and  more  to  weakness  and  decay  while 
Christianity  will  increase  in  stature  and  strength 
with  the  moral  progress  of  the  world,  of  which  it 
is  the  vital  pulse.  The  difference  between  Chris- 
tianity and  heathenism  is  far  more  a  matter  of  motor 
than  of  motive.  They  present  a  contrast  similar 
to  that  of  two  engines,  one  under  a  full  head  of 
steam  and  a  skilled  and  steady  hand  on  the  throttle, 
the  other  as  perfect  in  mechanism  but  "  dead  "  and 
without  a  master.  The  whole  New  Testament 
throbs  with  the  life  of  God  in  men.  Henry  Drum- 
mond  says  the  "  sum  of  E'ew  Testament  doctrine 
is  that  there  is  an  immediate  action  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  on  the  souls  of  men.  In  the  New  Testament 
alone,  the  Spirit  is  referred  to  nearly  three  hundred 
times.  And  the  one  word  with  which  He  is  con- 
stantly associated  is  power."  * 

One  of  more  than  a  few  remarks  which  show 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge's  "  crudeness  "  as  a  theologian  (to 
use  a  word  which  he  overworks  in  his  characteriza- 
tions of  "  the  clergy  "),  whatever  be  his  standing  as 
a  scientist,  is  this  :  "  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  higher 
man  of  to-day  is  not  worrying  about  his  sins  at  all, 
still  less  about  their  punishment :  his  mission,  if  he 
is  good  for  anything,  is  to  be  up  and  doing."  Per- 
haps the  "  higher  man  "  "  is  not  worrying  about  his 
sins  "  and  can  be  "  up  and  doing  "  even  if  he  cannot 
be  doing  anything  better  than  imitating  this  dis- 
tinguished but  inelegant  critic  in  calling  the  man 

»  "The  New  Evangelism,"  p.  139. 


igo     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 


who  rejoices  in  Christ's  propitiating  atonement  a 
"  cur "  or  him  who  believes  in  original  sin  a 
"  monk,"  but  the  vast  majority  of  men  and  women 
of  our  race  have  consciences  which  daily  torture 
them  for  their  sins  and  whose  moral  weakness  pro- 
duced by  sin  is  a  matter  of  deepest  consciousness 
and  most  frequent  demonstration.  His  optimism  is 
that  of  Browning,  namely,  that  God's  help  and 
strength  are  for  the  strong.  Melancthon  said : 
"  Old  Adam  is  too  strong  for  young  Melancthon." 
We  may  imitate  Epictetus  and  challenge  these 
apostles  of  science  and  doctors  of  a  new  theology, 
as  well  as  the  devotees  of  the  heathen  religions  to 
show  us  their  products.  "  By  heaven,"  said  this  old 
philosopher,  "  I  long  to  see  a  Stoic !  But  you  have 
not  one  fully  developed  ?  Show  me  then  one  who 
is  developing ;  one  who  is  approaching  towards  this 
character.  Do  me  this  favour !  Do  not  refuse  an 
old  man  a  sight  which  he  has  never  yet  seen." 
Saints  are  not  as  numerous  as  we  should  like  to  see 
them,  but  never  is  there  an  age  to  which  Chris- 
tianity does  not  present  samples  of  this  exclusive 
product  and  always  and  everywhere  it  has  many  in 
the  making.  Many  who  do  not  count  themselves 
perfect  are  nevertheless  by  the  power  of  Christ's 
regenerating  Spirit  following  after  that  they  may 
apprehend  that  for  w^hich  they  are  also  apprehended 
of  Christ  Jesus,  which  is  the  highest  mark  ever  set 
or  attained  by  mortal  man.  Thousands  of  the 
saints,  both  of  those  made  and  those  making,  are 
constructed   out   of  material   which  sin  had  first 


Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual     191 

marred  and  sadly  spoiled.  Through  courses  of 
immorality,  some  of  them  dead  to  self-respect  and 
brutally,  lacking  in  love,  both  for  those  who  gave 
them  birth  and  their  own  offspring,  touched  by  this 
rejuvenating  and  rehabilitating  power  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  have  been  transformed  into  the  most 
beautiful,  most  faithful  and  serviceable  citizens. 
JSTo  other  religion,  no  science,  no  philosophy  and  no 
other  form  even  of  Christian  doctrine  than  the 
evangelical  can.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  duplicate  such  examples  as  these 
man  for  man.  That  is  a  fact  which  the  anti- 
miraculous  scientists,  the  apostles  of  "  organized 
knowledge,"  may  presently  be  called  upon  to 
explain. 

It  is  his  ignorance  of  the  average  man  and  the 
commonest  human  experiences  which  always  dis- 
qualifies the  scholastic  recluse  for  handling  the  prac- 
tical problems  of  life  and  for  being  a  critic  of  the 
matters  of  common  faith  which  are  bound  up  with 
these  problems.  The  educated  evangelist  and  mis- 
sionary are  safer  and  more  competent  judges  of  the 
true  and  vital  elements  of  evangelical  faith  than 
cloistered  and  erudite  scholars. 

Sin  may  indeed  be  overcome  by  "  the  expulsive 
power  of  a  new  affection,"  but  that  new  affection 
is  a  gift  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  the  Christian  heritage, 
"  because  the  love  of  God  hath  been  shed  abroad  in 
our  hearts  through  the  Holy  Spirit  which  was  given 
unto  us.  For  while  we  were  yet  weak,  in  due  sea- 
son Christ  died  for  the  ungodly  "  (Rom.  v.  5-6). 


192     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

The  love  and  the  strength  are  from  the  same  source. 
The  Christian  experience  is  something  more  than 
sentiment  or  emotion.  Experimental  Christianity, 
it  is  true,  exults  in  joy,  love,  hope,  but  these 
emotions  are  surcharged  with  persistent  moral 
energy.  The  profound  spiritual  exhilaration  of  the 
new  birth  has  a  sequel  in  an  increasing  moral 
strength  under  the  ministry  of  that  Spirit  which 
helps  our  infirmities  ;  for  "  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is 
in  all  goodness  and  righteousness  and  truth." 
Righteousness  and  goodness  are  as  far  removed 
from  a  mere  emotional  excitement  as  they  are  from 
simple  decorous  manners.  Such  as  these  come  out 
of  a  man — out  of  the  inner  life  of  the  soul  and  are 
generated  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  They  are  the  issues 
of  the  daily  moral  and  spiritual  renewing  of  the 
Spirit  by  which  Christianity  and  Christianity  alone 
fulfills  Bishop  Burkett's  definition  of  religion,  as 
"  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul,"  and  of  which  Paul 
speaks  when  he  says,  "  that  He  would  grant  you, 
according  to  the  riches  of  His  glory,  that  ye  may  be 
strengthened  with  power  through  His  Spirit  in  the 
inward  man ;  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts 
through  faith ;  to  the  end  that  ye  being  rooted  and 
grounded  in  love,"  etc.  (Eph.  iii.  16-17). 

If  Christianity  is  true,  this  is  just  what  ought  to 
be  expected.  No  religion  can  be  true  which  is  not 
experienceable  and  which  does  not  meet  man's 
moral  needs ;  which  has  not  the  power  to  satisfy 
and  freshen  his  spiritual  nature,  improve  his 
character,  give  him  ability  to  resist  evil,  realize  the 


Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual    193 

good  and  perform  a  practical  neighbourly  goodness. 
It  must  be  his  helper  in  realizing  both  a  subjective 
and  an  objective  goodness.  Institutional  religion 
must  provide  for  and  correspond  with  individual 
functions  ;  the  creed  must  mate  with  man's  religious 
nature.  This  is  the  case  with  Christianity.  It  was 
this  harmony  that  Tertullian  had  in  mind  when  he 
spoke  of  "  the  human  soul  which  is  naturally 
Christian."  The  human  soul  and  the  Christian 
religion  are  adapted  to  each  other. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  person  in  the  divine  Trinity 
who  especially  exerts  influence,  inspires  imder- 
standing,  communicates  vitality,  arouses  energy, 
supplies  force  and  induces  activity.  The  love  and 
omnipotence  of  God  the  Father,  the  Atonement  of 
Christ  the  Kedeemer  are  by  Him  made  available, 
and  He  prepares  the  heart  for  their  reception  and 
intimately  superintends  their  operation  in  the  be- 
liever's life.  Where  He  resides  there  is  inner 
illumination,  spiritual  life,  moral  power,  and  relig- 
ious action.  The  book  we  call  "Acts  of  the 
Apostles  "  is  the  history  of  the  first  period  in  which 
the  Spirit  wrought  in  full  freedom  with  all  the 
materials  of  His  administration  available.  He  had 
been  among  men  hitherto.  Even  Avhen  creation  was 
young,  He  had  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters, 
garnished  the  heavens  and  through  the  years  had 
come  "  upon  "  representative  individuals  of  the  old 
Hebrew  regime  ;  but  from  Pentecost  He  had  for  His 
use  the  efiicient  elements  of  the  gospel.  God  in 
His  love  had  given  His  Son.    Jesus  had  taught  His 


194     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

potential  doctrines  and  died  making  expiation  for 
sin,  had  risen  again  vanquishing  death  and  demon- 
strating immortality.  The  divine  Administrator 
now  comes  forth  furnished  by  these  for  His  work  and 
begins  that  wonderful  career  of  making  these  effect- 
ive. The  results  were  at  once  manifest.  Under- 
standing is  enlightened,  spirits  and  consciences  are 
quickened.  Everywhere  men  get,  first  of  all,  a 
new  sense  of  sin,  a  new  view  of  righteousness  and 
a  new  apprehension  of  judgment.  A  transforming 
energy  attends  His  movements.  Men  are  thrilled 
by  it,  and  the  fittest  word  which  can  be  found  to 
characterize  their  behaviour  is  acts — "  the  acts  of 
the  apostles." 

"  We  should  do  scant  justice  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, however,  if  we  merely  set  out  to  expound 
its  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spu'it.  What  it  con- 
tains is  not  so  much  a  doctrine  as  a  conscious- 
ness, and  a  consciousness  of  indescribable  richness 
and  power.  The  early  Church  lived  and  moved  and 
had  its  being  in  the  living  sense  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
as  a  present  force.  The  wonderful  rush  of  fullness 
and  power  that  appears  in  the  experiences  of  the 
day  of  Pentecost  is  a  fair  symbol  of  the  character- 
istic experience  of  the  age  that  gave  us  the  New 
Testament.  When  we  read  the  Epistles  and  ob- 
serve how  many  works  of  grace  and  power  are 
attributed  to  this  divine  Agent,  and  how  incidentally 
and  informally  they  are  mentioned,  and  yet  how 
glowingly,  we  see  how  impossible  it  is  to  formulate 
the  doctrine  that  such  expressions  imply,  and  to 


Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual    195 

classify  the  manifold  operations  of  the  living  Spirit 
of  God  as  they  are  there  represented.  The  Epistles 
were  Avritten  in  the  very  atmosphere  of  power. 
One  who  wishes  to  know  what  the  Holy  Spirit  was 
to  the  early  Church  should  read  them  rapidly, 
noting  how  various  and  how  glorious  are  the 
epithets  that  are  employed,  and  yielding  himself  to 
the  free  spirit  and  reverent  and  joyful  intimacy 
that  breathes  on  every  page.  This  is  the  subject 
regarding  which  we  can  understand  the  New 
Testament  only  by  breathing  its  life.  It  was 
glorious  to  live  with  a  sense  of  present  divine 
energy,  a  consciousness  that  God  dwelt  graciously 
within  and  was  moving  omnipotently  without."  ^ 

More  than  any  other  religion,  Christianity  tells  us 
about  the  origin,  the  nature,  guilt,  and  the  conse- 
quence of  sin,  and  at  the  same  time  lifts  up  before 
us  the  highest  standard  of  goodness  ever  exhibited 
in  any  system  or  enforced  by  any  set  of  moral 
rules.  Naturally  under  no  other  teaching  are  men 
plunged  into  such  depths  of  despair.  But,  thank 
God  !  it  is  here  also  that  man  is  told  about  atone- 
ment for  sin,  about  forgiveness,  pardon,  cleansing, 
righteousness  by  faith  and  spiritual  renewing. 
These  words  which  are  the  native  tongue  of  Chris- 
tianity are  foreign  speech  everywhere  else.  If 
nowhere  else  sin  is  so  exceeding  sinful,  neither  is 
there  anywhere  under  heaven  given  among  men  a 
name  like  the  name  of  Jesus  whereby  men  may  be 
saved   from   their   sins,  nor   anywhere   a  precious 

» *•  An  Outline  of  Christian  Theology,"  by  W.  N.  Clarke,  p.  372. 


196    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Holy  Spirit,  divine  Paraclete,  which  name,  as  Dr. 
W.  N.  Clarke  reminds  us,  means  "Helper,"  or 
"Friend-m-Is'^eed." 

What  more  fitting  words  can  close  this  chapter 
and  convince  of  the  truth  of  its  message  than 
words  which  the  Spirit  Himself  has  inspired  and 
which  shows  plainly  that  He  is  the  Keeper  of  the 
gates  of  life ;  that  no  one  can  enter  the  living  way 
except  the  Spirit  lead  him  ;  that  all  are  weak  who 
have  not  the  strength  which  He  imparts  ;  that  only 
the  life  which  He  indwells  can  realize  the  high 
standards  of  moral  excellence ;  that  as  Jesus  is  the 
only  name  by  which  men  can  be  saved,  there  is  not 
outside  of  Christianity  another  to  perform  the 
sacred  functions  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that  in  Him 
are  abundant  resources  of  power  ? 

"  If  any  man  hath  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is 
none  of  His  "  (Rom.  viii.  9). 

"  Except  one  be  born  of  water  and  the  Spirit,  he 
cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  "  (John  iii.  5). 

"  For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
these  are  the  sons  of  God  "  (Rom.  viii.  14). 

"  For  through  Him  we  both  have  our  access  in 
one  Spirit  unto  the  Father  "  (Eph.  ii.  18). 

"  There  is  one  body,  and  one  Spirit,  even  as  also 
ye  were  called  in  one  hope  of  your  calling ;  one 
Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism  "  (Eph.  iv.  4-5). 

"The  Spirit  Himself  beareth  witness  with  our 
spirit,  that  we  are  children  of  God  :  and  if  children, 
then  heirs ;  heirs  of  God,  and  joint-heirs  with 
Christ"  (Rom.  viii.  16-17). 


Moral  Invigoration  of  the  Individual     197 

"  And  in  like  manner  the  Spu-it  also  helpeth  our 
infirmity  "  (Eom.  viii.  26). 

"That  He  would  gi^ant  you  according  to  the 
riches  of  His  glory,  that  ye  may  be  strengthened 
with  power  through  His  Spirit  in  the  inward  man ; 
that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  through  faith ; 
to  the  end  that  ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in 
love,  may  be  strong  to  apprehend  with  all  the 
saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and  height 
and  depth,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which 
passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  may  be  filled  unto  all 
the  fullness  of  God.  Now  unto  Him  that  is  able  to 
do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or 
think,  according  to  the  power  that  worketh  in  us, 
unto  Him  be  the  glory  in  the  church  and  in  Christ 
Jesus  unto  all  generations  forever  and  ever. 
Amen  "  (Eph.  iii.  16-21). 


VI 

IMMORTALITY  DEMONSTRATED— THE  RESUR- 
RECTION OF  JESUS 

THE  thought  of  individual,  personal,  and 
accountable  endless  life  is  the  most  sol- 
emn that  ever  engaged  the  mind  and 
heart  of  man.  All  creature  comforts,  personal 
fame  or  power,  dwarf  into  insignificance  before  this 
question  of  living  forever  and  facing  in  another 
world  responsibility  for  the  deeds  done  in  this. 
There  is  no  other  hope,  no  other  fear,  no  other  awe 
like  that  which  meditation  upon  this  fact  inspires. 
Certainty  of  nothing  else  is  so  much  to  be  desired 
as  certainty  concerning  our  future  destiny.  As 
good  as  all  knowledge  is  and  as  baneful  as  is  all 
ignorance,  a  sure  and  rational  hope  of  futurity  is 
more  important  than  any  science.  That  religion 
which  sounds  a  clear,  strong,  affirmative,  yet  hope- 
ful note  here  will  eventually  receive  the  attention 
of  all  men,  and  all  who  are  not  hopelessly  blinded 
by  the  God  of  this  world  will  seek  its  consolations. 
Wu  Ting  Fang,  the  intelligent  Chinese  minister  to 
the  United  States  in  1901,  bore  a  natural  and  pa- 
thetic testimony :  "  Christianity,"  he  said,  "  owes 
most  of  its  converts  in  China  to  the  fact  that  it  is 
more  alluring  than  any  religion  we  have  there. 

198 


Immortality  Demonstrated  199 

The  idea  of  a  future  life  is  tempting  to  many. 
Confucius  teaches  no  such  doctrine.     He  was  once 
asked  if  he  believed  in  a  future  life,  and  he  an- 
swered :  *  If  I  don't  know  what  will  take  place  to- 
morrow, how  can  I  know  anything  about  a  more 
remote  future  ? '  "    Both  the  question  propounded  to 
Confucius  and  his  answer  to  it  are  significant. 
The  question  indicates  man's  intuitive  conjecture 
that  he  is  immortal  and  that  he  is  deeply  interested 
in  the  question  of  immortality,  while  the  answer  is 
illustrative  of  the  ignorance  of  non-Christian  men 
and    systems  concerning  this  high  theme.     Men 
must  know  the  truth  about  it,  but  no  man  with- 
out revelation  can  declare  it  to  them. 

This  hope  and  dread  of  immortality  is  in  the 
hearts  of  all  men,  but  it  is  unsteady,  flickers,  and 
flares  in  all  non-Christian  creeds.  Among  all  the 
widely  separated  and  unrelated  savage  and  infant 
races  is  found  evidence  of  belief  in  a  spiritual  ex- 
istence surviving  the  death  of  the  body.  The  low- 
est African  tribes,  the  most  ignorant  and  supersti- 
tious American  Indians,  are  mightily  influenced  by 
this  belief.  The  crude  belief  in  ghosts  is  a  sort  of 
faith  in  immortality.  Ghosts  are  simply  souls  with- 
out bodies ;  souls  of  dead  men  and  women  surviv- 
ing the  ordeal  of  bodily  death.  These  ghosts  are 
believed  to  be  capable  of  the  old  loves,  hates,  re- 
venges of  those  whom  they  survive,  and  of  trans- 
porting themselves  rapidly  at  will. 

Many  of  the  polytheistic  gods  were  human  heroes 
immortalized.     They  were  still  creatures  of  the 


200    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

most  exuberant  human  passions,  and  were  often 
guilty  of  the  most  flagi^ant  sins.  Like  the  ghosts  of 
Negro  superstition  they  had  power  and  disposition 
to  harm  man,  but  could  not  be  harmed  by  him. 

"  Gods  partial,  changeful,  passionate,  unjnst. 
Whose  attributes  were  rage,  revenge,  and  lust." 


Belief  in  them  is  evidence  of  a  blind  faith  in  an  in- 
visible and  supramundane  world. 

The  theories  of  transmigration,  while  bearing  the 
marks  of  human  manufacture,  indicate  a  conscious 
need  and  belief  that  death  does  not  end  all.  While 
such  a  faith  does  not  satisfy,  it  does  give  evidence 
of  the  unquenchable  hope  in  a  post-mortem  existence. 

There  is  many  a  striking  passage  bearing  on  this 
subject  in  the  ancient  Roman  and  Grecian  classics, 
some  affirming,  some  denying,  and  some  merely 
raising  the  question,  but  all  bearing  evidence  that 
it  was  in  the  air,  a  matter  of  popular  concern. 
Historians,  poets,  and  philosophers  echo  the  popular 
belief.  The  philosophers  all  speculate  concerning 
the  "  great  mystery."  A  few  like  Plato  were  more 
confident,  but  even  for  them,  the  future  had  no  sub- 
stance compared  with  the  present.  "  Life  was  here 
and  not  there."  Others  were  oppressed  with  abject 
hopelessness.  "Rather  would  I,"  says  Achilles, 
"  on  earth  be  a  serf  to  another,  a  man  of  little  land 
and  little  substance,  than  be  a  prince  over  all  the 
dead  that  have  come  to  nought."  And  Catullus 
says,  "  Suns  may  set  and  suns  may  rise  again,  when 


Immortality  Demonstrated  201 

once  our  brief  life  has  set,  one  unbroken  night  of 
sleep  remains."  ^ 

While  these  philosophers  disagree,  they  cannot 
evade  and  dare  not  despise  this  great  question.  As 
moths  are  irresistibly  attracted  to  the  candle,  the 
philosophers  are  drawn  to  this  great  theme,  although 
the  deliverances  of  the  most  confident  of  them  are 
not  assurances,  but  rather  "  the  natural  guesses  of 
thoughtful  minds."  They  do  not  speak  with  dog- 
matism, and  are  not  read  with  conviction.  Caesar 
objected  to  the  death  sentence  upon  Catiline  for 
conspiracy  because  "  death  is  the  end  of  all  suffer- 
ing. After  death  there  is  neither  pain  nor  pleas- 
ure." And  Pliny  said,  ''  The  vanity  of  man,  and 
his  insatiable  longing  after  existence  have  led  him 
also  to  dream  of  life  after  death.  A  being  full  of 
contradictions,  he  is  the  most  wretched  of  creatures : 
since  the  other  creatures  have  no  wants  transcend- 
ing their  natures.  Man  is  full  of  desires  and  wants 
that  reach  to  infinity  and  can  never  be  satisfied. 
His  nature  is  a  lie,  uniting  the  gi^eatest  poverty  with 
the  greatest  pride.  Among  these  so  great  evils,  the 
best  thing  God  has  bestowed  on  man  is  the  power 
to  take  his  own  life."  Socrates  was  again  more 
confident.  He  said  :  "  You  may  bury  me  if  you 
can  catch  me,  but  when  you  have  buried  my  body, 
do  not  say  that  you  have  buried  Socrates."  Al- 
though it  does  not  seem  to  have  influenced  his 
morals,  Goethe,  among  the  moderns,  spoke  forth 
the  intuitive  hope.    "  I  have,"  he  says,  "  a  fine  con- 

1  "Expositor's  Bible,"  1  Thess.  iv.  13. 


202    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

viction  that  our  soul  is  an  existence  of  an  inde- 
structible nature."  At  times,  through  the  ages,  the 
light  flared  a  little  and  then  again  flickered  well- 
nigh  to  the  socket  and  a  sombre  gloom  fell  upon 
these  great  spirits  depressing  them  with  false  and 
melancholy  views  of  life ;  but  still  the  great  ques- 
tion would  not  down,  though  no  final  answer  to  it 
could  be  found.  Dr.  James  Orr  says,  "  History  and 
literature  are  witnesses  how  little  '  natural  intima- 
tions of  immortality '  can  of  themselves  do  to  sus- 
tain an  assured  confidence  in  a  future  conscious  ex- 
istence, or  to  give  comfort  and  hope  at  the  thought 
of  entrance  into  it."  * 

Some  modern  philosophers,  Mr.  Balfour  and  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge,  for  example,  find  ground  for  their 
conjectures  of  immortality  in  the  modern  theories 
of  conservation  of  energy  and  the  principle  of  con- 
tinuity. But  at  best,  these  are  but  the  conjectures 
of  great  minds,  and  we  doubt  not  much  was  first 
read  into  these  laws  of  nature  before  these  philos- 
ophers were  able  to  read  even  these  conjectures 
out  of  them.  The  moral  revelations  of  nature  are 
usually  nothing  more  than  analogy  founded  upon 
religious  presuppositions.  Moreover,  it  seems  to 
us  that  the  argument  from  the  conservation  of  en- 
ergy tends  more  to  establish  the  idea  of  immortality 
taught  in  Hinduism  than  that  taught  by  Christianity. 
It  is  the  immortality  of  the  dewdrop.  "  As  a  drop 
it  is  born,  and  as  a  drop  it  dies :  but  as  aqueous 
vapour  it  persists."     The  above  is  Dr.  Lodge's  fig- 

*  "  The  KesurreotioD  of  Jesus,"  p.  272. 


Immortality  Demonstrated  203 

ure,  and  such  is  immortality  without  personality, 
which  is  Hinduism.  Positivism  and  some  of  the 
new  sciences  preach  as  doleful  an  immortality  as 
the  Hindu  doctrine,  and  not  altogether  dissimilar  to 
it :  namely,  "  an  impersonal  immortality  in  the  con- 
sequence of  our  lives  and  actions,  prolonged  through 
the  generations  which  come  after  us."  ^  That  sort 
of  immortality  does  not  appeal  to  any  one,  since 
those  who  are  to  inherit  it  do  not  at  any  time  in 
the  process  exist  to  desire  it,  and  no  one  can  ever 
enjoy  the  ultimate  good,  which  can  only  be  the  pos- 
session of  the  last  man  in  the  procession,  and  he 
will  miss  it,  because  the  world  will  end  before  the 
process  is  complete. 

The  Old  Testament  Scriptures  more  than  hint  at 
the  after  life,  but  even  here  the  evidence  was  not 
strong  enough  to  unite  their  expositors  in  an  af- 
firmative faith.  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  took  the 
pro  and  con  views  respectively,  while  both  con- 
sidered the  Gentiles  but  dogs  with  a  dog's 
destiny. 

There  are  monitions  of  immortality  in  all  the 
great  religions,  but  not  a  clear,  confident  and 
hopeful  assertion  of  it  in  one  of  them.  Brahman- 
ism,  the  oldest  of  the  ethnic  faiths,  consigned  the 
soul  to  repeated  re-births,  passage  through  innumer- 
able forms  of  life,  in  journeys  long  and  short,  per- 
sonality to  be  lost  at  last  in  the  infinite,  as  the  rain- 
drop is  finally  lost  in  the  ocean.  The  hope  of 
individual,  personal  immortality  is  not  cherished 

*  Goldwin  Smith,  "  Guesses  at  the  Riddle  of  Existence,"  p.  116, 


204    'r^^  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

and  nurtured  in  Brahmanism.'  Buddhism,  the 
most  extensive  religion  in  the  world,  presents  im- 
mortality "  in  so  obscure  a  form  that  many  of  the 
best  scholars  declare  that  the  highest  aim  and  last 
result  of  all  progress  in  Buddhism  is  annihilation."  ^ 
Gautama,  the  Buddha,  the  founder  of  Buddhism, 
opposed  the  belief  in  a  personal  soul  capable  of  a 
separate  and  conscious  individual  existence,  which 
was  a  part  of  the  thought  of  his  time  and  country. 
With  hhn  salvation  was  a  thing  to  be  enjoyed  in 
this  life  only.^  Buddhism  in  China  has  so  far  re- 
formed and  adapted  itself  to  demands  of  Chinese 
craving  for  immortality  as  to  adopt  a  doctrine  of 
future  life.^  But  as  the  remark  by  Mr.  Wu  Ting 
Fang  quoted  above  indicates  the  Chinese  still  crave 
more  than  Buddhism  offers  on  this  subject. 

To  sum  up  ;  Confucianism  is  not  properly  speak- 
ing a  religion  at  all,  and  knows  nothing  about  the 
future :  Brahmanism  is  chiefly  a  philosophy  and 
teaches  that  the  soul  is  at  last  lost  in  infinity ;  pure 
Buddhism  denies  the  existence  of  the  soul  alto- 
gether. 

How  great  the  contrast  between  all  this  and  the 
words  of  Jesus!  With  Him  this  doctrine  of  the 
soul  and  its  destiny  is  as  clear  as  day,  as  luminous 
as  light.     There  is  no  hesitation  to  speak,  and  no 

'See  "  Great  Religions  of  the  World,"  article  Brahmanism,  by 
A.  C  Lyal. 

2 Clark's  *'Ten  Great  Religions,"  pp.  490-491. 

8  "  Great  Religions  of  the  World,"  article  Buddhism,  by  T.  W. 
Rhys  Davids. 

*  "  Uplift  of  China,"  by  Arthur  H.  Smith,  p.  106. 


Immortality  Demonstrated  205 

obscurity  in  His  words.  He  knows  the  soul  as  He 
knows  the  body,  and  is  as  much  at  home  in  the 
celestial  world,  the  soul's  proper  sphere,  as  in  this 
present  material  house.  There  is  nothing  in  all  the 
literature  of  religion  comparable  to  such  words  as 
these,  taken  almost  at  random  from  His  discourses  : 
"  He  that  believeth  on  Me,  though  he  die,  yet  shall 
he  live  ;  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  on  Me 
shall  never  die  "  (John  xi.  25-26).  "  And  as  Moses 
lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must 
the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up,  that  whosoever  be- 
lieveth may  in  Him  have  eternal  life"  (John 
iii.  14-15).  "  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also  " 
(John  xiv.  19).  In  such  assurances  you  have  the 
first  clear  hopeful  and  satisfactory  word  ever 
spoken  to  man,  conscious  of  capacity,  and  feverish 
with  longing  for  immortal  life.  ]^o  wonder  salva- 
tion is  called  "  water  of  life  "  ;  it  is  such  a  glorious 
refreshing  for  those  who  famish  with  thirst  for  life, 
— endless,  personal,  blissful  life.  In  the  light  of 
Jesus'  teaching,  our  natures  do  not  lie,  as  Pliny  de- 
clared. The  Great  Teacher  answers  the  great 
prophecies  of  the  soul  and  satisfies  its  deep  longing. 
But  totally  eclipsing,  as  He  does,  by  His  words, 
all  that  was  ever  said  before  Him  on  the  subject  of 
man's  deathless  life  and  endless  career,  Jesus'  reve- 
lation of  immortality  is  not  finished  with  doctrine ; 
indeed,  it  is  scarcely  begun.  It  was  not  in  words, 
as  unapproachably  full  and  glorious  as  His  words 
were,  that  He  brought  life  and  immortality  to 
light.     On  the  subject  of    immortality,   as  upon 


2o6    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

every  other  which  He  spake,  Jesus  Christ  was  the 
matchless  teacher,  but  even  more  than  in  doctrine 
did  Jesus  outdistance  all  others  in  doing.  It  was 
so  concerning  this  great  theme.  Indeed,  in  illumi- 
nating it,  He  advanced  upon  His  own  teaching  and 
illustrated  it.  He  gave  us  an  example  of  the  resur- 
rection life.  He  demonstrated  immortality.  In 
His  teaching  He  did  not  argue  the  question;  He 
declared  the  fact.  He  made  no  conjectures  based 
upon  correspondences  in  nature,  the  capacity  and 
the  longings  of  the  soul.  He  dealt  in  pure  dogma, 
and  followed  this  by  absolute  demonstration.  The 
incomparable  light  which  Jesus  shed  on  the  ques- 
tion of  future  life  was  His  resurrection.  If  the 
words  of  others  on  the  subject  of  immortality  are 
to  His  words  as  a  candle  compared  with  the  moon 
as  a  world  illuminator,  this  deed  of  Jesus  is  like 
the  sun  outshining  both.  His  resurrection  was 
a  revelation  full  and  final.  As  Dr.  Geikie  says, 
immortality  was  an  open  question  until  Jesus 
rose  from  the  dead.  In  that  act,  He  showed  us 
what  He  had  told  us.  His  safe  journey  through 
the  shadow  of  death  and  reappearance  banished 
doubt,  made  philosophical  speculation  obsolete,  and 
argument  impertinent.  We  do  not  now  believe 
that  life  survives  and  persists  beyond  mortal  death 
and  the  grave ;  we  know  that  it  does.  We  have 
had  an  exhibition  of  it.  "  If  Christ  be  preached  that 
He  hath  been  raised  from  the  dead,  how  say  some 
among  you  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the 
dead?"  (1  Cor.  xv.  12).     The  resurrection  put  an 


Immortality  Demonstrated  207 

end  to  rational  controversy.  There  is  no  longer  a 
negative  to  maintain. 

Whoever  believes  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  is 
far  in  advance  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  and  does 
not  need  the  help  of  spiritualism,  the  Society  of 
Psychical  Kesearch,  nor  the  corroboration  of  mod- 
ern science  to  confirm  his  faith  in  future  life.  Jesus 
brought  life  and  immortality  to  light— brought  them 
into  clear  day  and  showed  them  unto  us.  We  know 
there  is  indestructible  life  because  we  have  seen  it. 
Jesus'  "  grave  was  the  birthplace  of  the  indestruc- 
tible belief  that  death  is  vanquished,  and  that  there 
is  a  life  eternal."  * 

If  any  raise  the  question  as  to  the  reality  of  the  res- 
urrection of  Jesus  and  call  for  the  evidence,  this  may 
be  offered,  and  a  discussion  of  it  may  be  admitted ; 
but  let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  he  who  denies 
that  resurrection  as  a  historical  fact  is  not  a  Chris- 
tian. "  The  resurrection,"  says  TertuUian,  "  is  the 
Christian's  hope ;  by  it  we  are  believers."  Paul 
tells  the  Corinthians,  "  I  make  known  unto  you, 
brethren,  the  gospel  which  also  ye  received,  wherein 
also  ye  stand ;  by  which  also  ye  are  saved :  .  .  . 
that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  and  that  He  was  buried ;  and  that  He  hath 
been  raised  on  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures "  (1  Cor.  XV.  1-4).  Christians,  then,  are  those 
who  have  believed  in,  and  have  been  saved  by  the 
literal  death,  and  the  equally  literal  resurrection 
of  Jesus.     "  If  Christ  hath  not  been  raised,  your 

1  "What  is  Christianity?"  by  Harnack,  p.  175. 


2o8    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

faith  is  vain ;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins  "  (1  Cor.  xv.  lY). 
Dr.  W.  Eobertson  NicoU  says  it  is  legitimate  to  ask 
the  critic,  "  Do  you  beheve  the  incarnation  and  res- 
urrection of  Christ  ?  If  his  reply  is  in  the  affirma- 
tive his  process  and  results  are  to  be  examined 
earnestly  and  calmly.  If  he  replies  in  the  negative, 
he  has  missed  the  way,  and  has  put  himself  outside 
the  Church  of  Christ."  '  With  slight  modification 
these  words  might  stand  for  an  exposition  of  the 
above  passage  from  Corinthians.  There  is  nothing 
like  this  resurrection  outside  of  Christianity,  and 
no  one  is  inside  Christianity  who  denies  it.  Dr. 
William  Hayes  Ward  may  be  quoted  as  the  rep- 
resentative of  a  certain  class  of  religious  writers 
of  the  present  day.  He  says,  "A  belief  in  the 
future  life,  and  so  in  Christ's  resurrection,  is  not 
absolutely  essential  to  Christian  character,  which 
is  the  really  essential  thing  in  Christianity."  2 
This  is  thoroughly  anti-Pauline.  The  best  that 
can  be  said  of  this  language  is  that  it  is  con- 
sistent with  what  follows,  namely,  "  It  was  in  a  flash 
of  excessive  and  mistaken  rhetorical  fervour  that 
Paul  exclaimed,  'What  advantageth  it  me  if  the 
dead  rise  not  ? '  "  etc.  There  is  much  else  in  this 
fifteenth  chapter  of  Corinthians  which  must  be  at- 
tributed to  "  excessive  and  mistaken  oratorical  fer- 
vour "  to  support  Dr.  Ward  and  the  class  for  whom 
he  speaks,  for  Paul  here  maintains  that  the  gospel 
is  in  its  very  heart  the  death  and  resurrection  of 


^  "  The  Church's  One  Foundation,"  p.  4. 
^  The  Independent,  January,  1902. 


Immortality  Demonstrated  209 

Christ,  and  that  it  is  this  that  saves,  and  without  it 
men  are  in  their  sins.  J^ow  men  in  their  sins  can 
scarcely  illustrate  Christian  character,  "which  is 
the  really  essential  thing  in  Christianity."  The 
mild  words  of  Dean  Church  are  recalled.  He  says, 
"  A  Christianity  which  tells  us  to  think  of  Christ 
doing  good,  but  to  forget  and  put  out  of  sight 
Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  is  not  true  to  life."  It 
is  not  even  true  Christianity  at  all,  and  is  not  true 
to  anything.  Scripture,  apostolic  teaching,  historic 
faith,  and  the  vital  content  in  an  efficient  Christian 
evangelism  are  all  contradicted,  distorted  and  im- 
poverished by  such  a  view.  The  case  is  well  stated 
by  Dr.  George  Dana  Boardman :  "  The  resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  pivotal  fact  of  Christianity ; 
it  certifies  beyond  peradventure  His  religion ;  it  is 
the  absolutely  unique  fact  of  Christianity,  the  dem- 
onstration to  the  believer  of  its  absolute  certainty."  ' 
The  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  constitute  the 
culminating  efficacious  service  of  Christ  in  His  re- 
demptive work.  Marking  as  they  do  the  territory  of 
two  worlds,  they  denote  the  completeness  of  that  re- 
demption. The  one  event  transpired  on  this  side 
the  silent  grave  and  within  the  field  of  our  sin  and 
suffering,  and  compassed  the  needs  and  experiences 
of  this  life  in  the  divine  compassion ;  the  other  was 
enacted  mthin  the  confines  of  the  life  beyond  the 
grave  and  gives  radiance  to  the  immortal  hope. 
The  two  are  inseparable  and  bind  life  into  one  un- 
broken whole.    In  the  experience  and  hope  of  these, 

^  "  Our  Riseu  Kiug's  Forty  Days. " 


210    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

George  McDonald  could  say :  "  I  came  from  God, 
I  am  going  back  to  God,  and  there  will  not  be  any 
gap  in  the  middle  of  my  life." 

Thousands  have  gone  over  the  evidence  of  Christ's 
resurrection,  and  found  it  sufficient  to  risk  their 
eternal  hope  upon.  The  facts  warrant  these  judi- 
cial words  of  Dr.  Westcott  :  "  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  there  is  no  single  historic  incident  better 
or  more  variously  supported  than  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ."  *  To  the  same  effect  is  the  de- 
cision of  Dr.  Arnold:  "Thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  have  gone  through  the  evidence  which 
attests  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  piece  by  piece,  as 
carefully  as  a  judge  ever  summed  up  an  important 
case.  I  have  done  it  myself  many  times,  and  I 
know  of  no  fact  in  the  history  of  mankind  which 
is  proved  by  better  fitted  evidence  of  any  kind." 

The  way  this  fact  got  itself  established  in  history 
is  of  itself  a  most  convincing  process.  Of  all  men 
who  ever  admitted  it,  the  first  converts  were,  per- 
haps, the  most  tardy  and  timid  believers.  Those 
who  loved  Him  most  in  life  were  the  most  stubborn 
skeptics  concerning  His  resurrection.  It  was  to  His 
disciples  as  "  idle  tales,"  and  such  was  their  unwill- 
ingness to  believe  that  He  who  loved  them  most 
"  upbraided  them  with  their  unbelief,"  and  called 
them  "  fools  and  slow  of  heart  to  believe."  Belief 
in  the  fact  was  the  last  resort  of  the  disciples. 
Forced  to  it  by  indubitable  evidence,  they  gave 
it   unyielding  defense  even  at  the  greatest   per- 

1  "  The  Gospel  of  the  Resurrection,"  p.  136. 


Immortality  Demonstrated  2 1 1 

sonal  risk,  and  found  in  it  the  chief  support  of  a 
confident  hope  amidst  the  suffering  which  their 
witness  to  it  entailed.  They  set  it  before  others 
with  personal  testimony  and  with  such  uidisputable 
evidence,  and  the  citation  of  such  numerous  and 
available  eye-witnesses  as  was  scarcely  ever  pro- 
duced in  any  court  of  evidence.  They  gave  their 
own  testimony  and  named  other  witnesses  who 
could  be  produced  for  examination  if  any  doubted. 
Before  ascending  to  heaven,  Jesus  instructed  His 
disciples  to  begin  their  testimony  as  His  witnesses 
at  Jerusalem,  where  His  death  and  resurrection 
were  accomplished,  where  the  facts  were  known, 
and  where  other  eye-witnesses  were  available.  It 
was  precisely  under  these  conditions  where  fraud 
or  deception  would,  as  will  never  be  possible  again, 
most  certainly  have  been  detected  that  Christianity 
achieved  its  most  signal  success,  and  that  success 
distinctly  upon  the  merit  of  the  claim  for  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  which  constituted 
specifically  the  testimony  of  the  disciples  in  their 
early  Jerusalem  ministry.  There  was  abundant 
testimony  for  His  resurrection,  and  no  successful 
contradiction  of  it.  Christianity  won  its  early 
converts  and  was  established  in  history  by  eye- 
witnesses to  His  death.  Four  times  in  that  mar- 
vellous resurrection  chapter  of  First  Corinthians, 
Paul  used  the  word  "  seen " :  "  seen  of  Cephas, 
then  of  the  twelve  "  ;  "  seen  of  about  five  hundred 
brethren  at  once,  of  whom  the  greater  part  remain 
unto  the  present "  ;  "  seen  of  James,  then  of  all  the 


212    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

apostles  " ;  "  He  "was  seen  of  me."  ~^o  wonder 
thousands  believed ! 

But  this  did  not  exhaust  the  evidence.  The 
resurrection  produced  and  still  produces  evidence 
in  favour  of  its  reality.  "  The  power  of  His  resur- 
rection "  (Phil.  iii.  10),  and  "  the  power  of  an  end- 
less life"  (Heb.  vii.  16)  have  ever  since  been  mani- 
fest. Pentecost,  Paul's  conversion,  the  origin 
and  existence  of  the  Church,  and  the  Chiistian  ex- 
perience are  themselves  resultant  facts  and  strong 
evidence  for  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.'  Of  the 
faith  of  the  disciples  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
Baur  says :  "It  is  in  this  faith  only  that  Christi- 
anity found  a  gromid  solid  enough  to  erect  upon  it 
the  superstructure  of  its  whole  historical  develop- 
ment." Upon  this  foundation  it  has  stood  through 
the  centuries  of  furious  assault,  and  will  stand 
all  the  firmer  with  the  succeeding  years  in  which 
the  moral  effects  of  this  doctrine  add  to  its  de- 
fenses. 

E'er  does  this  gauge  the  power  and  brilliance  of 
that  light  into  which  Jesus  brought  life  and  im- 
mortality by  His  resurrection  and  which  is  dispersed 
through  his  gospel.  His  teachings  did  not  stop 
with  the  affirmations  of  endless  existence  simply, 
and  the  demonstration  of  His  teaching  afforded  by 
His  resurrection  is  a  fitting  counterpart  and  climax 
to  that  teaching.  That  is  to  say.  Christian  immor- 
tality is  more  than  the  continuance  of  life  beyond 
death ;  it  is  the  resurrection  of  the  body  that  consti- 

^  See  Orr's  *'  Resurrection  of  Jesus,"  pp.  205-210. 


Immortality  Demonstrated  213 

tutes  the  crowning  revelation  of  gospel  immortality. 
It  is  this  doctrine,  resting  on  the  solid  historic  fact 
of  Jesus'  resurrection  that  constitutes  the  incom- 
parable, the  unapproachable  uniqueness  of  the 
Christian  faith  concerning  the  future.  It  is  no 
mere  survival  of  the  soul  that  exhausts  and  tran- 
scendently  distinguishes  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
immortality,  but  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and 
the  endless  reunited  life  of  soul  and  body.  That 
is  wherein  no  philosophy  and  no  religion  paral- 
lels or  approaches  Cliristianity  in  this  matter. 
The  hope  of  immortality  flickers  in  all  men's 
hearts  at  times.  Literature  is  not,  as  we  have 
seen,  without  the  thought  of  great  men  upon  it. 
But  here  it  is  in  fact  and  more.  The  Christian 
doctrine  is  not  that  of  belief  in  a  discarnate  immor- 
tality. It  is  a  new  and  larger  unique  fact.  Jesus' 
resurrection  is  the  solitary  example  of  bodily  resur- 
rection to  endless  life  within  the  pale  of  authentic 
history,  and  the  only  fact  offered  anywhere  as  the 
ground  and  guarantee  of  our  hope  and  the  pattern 
of  our  immortal  life.  It  is  this  fact  of  the  resurrec- 
tion given  as  an  example  and  a  sample  of  immor- 
tality and  not  a  confirmation  of  the  world's  hope 
or  the  philosopher's  hy|iothesis  of  conscious  spmtual 
existence  beyond  the  grave  that  transcendently 
distinguishes  and  exalts  Christianity.  The  grave 
terminated  and  punctuated  with  a  period  of  black 
despair  the  messages  of  all  the  prophets  of  immor- 
tality who  lived  before  Chi'ist's  day,  but  since  then 
the  story  runs : 


214    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

"Now  hath  Christ  been  raised  from  the  dead. 

In  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive," 

(1  Cor.  XV.  20,  22.) 

"  There  is  no  instance  in  history,  apart  from  Chris- 
tianity, of  a  rehgion  estabhshed  on  belief  in  the 
resurrection  of  its  founder."  '  The  resurrection  of 
His  body  was  a  supreme  test  of  His  claims  and 
proof  of  His  authority  as  a  teacher  of  religion  ;  it 
remains  a  vital  and  essential  element  to  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  The  crucifixion  and  the  resurrection 
constitute  such  a  part  of  the  gospel  as  to  be  called 
the  gospel  by  Paul.  Outside  of  Christianity  the 
world  has  nothing  on  the  subject  of  immortality 
better  than  the  contradictions  of  philosophy,  the 
futile  efforts  of  the  human  mind  to  solve  the  en- 
chanting riddle. 

The  resurrection  of  His  body  is  the  prophecy  of 
bodily  resurrection.  "  But  now  hath  Christ  been 
raised  from  the  dead,  the  first-fruits  of  them  that 
are  asleep  "  (1  Cor.  xv.  20).  He  has  not  only  se- 
cured for  us  "  eternal  redemption "  by  His  death 
(Heb.  ix.  12),  but  the  "  redemption  of  our  body  " 
(Eom.  viii.  23),  by  His  resurrection.  Because  He 
lives  we  shall  live  also.  We  shall  have  a  body  like 
"  the  body  of  His  glory  "  (Phil.  iii.  21).  The  whole 
heathen  religious  literature  cannot  offer  a  hope  like 
that  nor  even  produce  a  counterfeit  of  this  tran- 
scendent doctrine.     While  we  do  not  agree  with 

2 "The  Kesurrection  of  Jesus,"  James  Orr,  p.  146. 


Immortality  Demonstrated  215 

him  as  to  the  origin  or  the  place  of  immortality  in 
the  Christian  system,  we  may  quote  as  true  the 
words  of  Dr.  W.  IST.  Clarke.  "  The  present  Chris- 
tian people,"  he  says,  "  hold  to  immortality  as  their 
human  birthright  and  their  Christian  inheritance, 
and  live  in  the  light  of  immortal  hope."  *  Henri 
Frederick  Amiel,  brilliant  genius  and  creature  of  a 
thousand  warring  emotions,  translated  the  Christian 
experience  into  the  following  beautiful  language : 
"  And  so,"  he  says,  "  for  those  who  have  believed, 
the  tomb  becomes  heaven,  and  on  the  funeral  pyres 
of  life,  they  sang  the  Hosannas  of  immortality."  ^ 
Let  the  beautiful  words  of  Victor  Hugo  close  this 
chapter.  They  show  the  universal  instinct,  what 
he  calls  "  thirst  for  the  infinite,"  but  they  have  bor- 
rowed their  triumphant  hopefulness  from  the  Chris- 
tian and  not  the  heathen  doctrine  of  immortality. 
It  is  Christ  who  turns  the  "  blind  alley  "  of  death 
into  a  "  thoroughfare  "  that  leads  not  to  the  "  twi- 
light "  but  to  the  "  dawn." 

"  I  feel  in  myself  the  future  life.  I  am  like  the 
forest  which  has  been  more  than  once  cut  down. 
The  new  shoots  are  stronger  and  livelier  than  ever. 
I  am  rising,  I  know,  towards  the  sky.  The  sun- 
shine is  on  my  head.  The  earth  gives  me  its  gen- 
erous sap,  but  heaven  lights  me  with  the  reflection 
of  unknown  worlds.  .  .  .  You  say  the  soul  is 
nothing  but  the  resultant  of  bodily  powers !  Why 
then  is  my  soul  more  luminous  when  my  body  be- 

»  "  What  Shall  We  Think  of  Christianity  ?  "  p.  81. 
«  Amiel's  "  Journal,"  p.  168. 


2i6     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

gins  to  fail  ?  Winter  is  on  my  head  and  eterna] 
spring  is  in  my  heart.  Then  I  breathe  at  this  hour 
the  fragrance  of  the  lilacs,  the  violets,  and  the  roses 
as  at  twenty  years.  The  nearer  I  approach  to  the 
end,  the  plainer  I  hear  around  me  the  symphonies 
of  the  world  which  invites  me.  It  is  marvellous, 
yet  simple.  It  is  a  fairy  tale,  and  it  is  history. 
For  half  a  century  I  have  written  my  thoughts  in 
prose,  verse,  history,  philosophy,  drama,  romance, 
tradition,  satire,  ode,  song — I  have  tried  all.  But 
I  feel  that  I  have  not  said  a  thousandth  part  of 
what  is  in  me.  When  I  go  down  to  the  grave,  I 
can  say  like  so  many  others,  I  have  finished  my 
day's  work,  but  I  cannot  say  that  I  have  finished 
my  life's.  My  day's  work  will  begin  again  in  the 
morning.  The  tomb  is  not  a  blind  alley ;  it  is  a 
thoroughfare.  It  closes  in  the  twilight  to  open  in 
the  dawn. 

"  I  improve  every  hour  because  I  love  this  world 
as  my  Fatherland.  My  work  is  only  a  beginning. 
My  monument  is  hardly  above  its  foundation.  I 
would  be  glad  to  see  it  mounting  forever.  The 
thirst  for  the  infinite  proves  infinity." 


yn 

A  RATIONAL   FUTURITY— THE  CHRISTIAN 
DOCTRINE  OF  HEAVEN  AND  HELL 

"  What  is  rational  is  real ;  and  what  is  real  is  rational." — Hegel. 

THE  vast  contrast  between  the  light  which 
Christianity  and  other  religions  respect- 
ively shed  upon  the  future  does  not  fully 
appear  even  with  the  resurrection  of  the  body  es- 
tablished as  a  sure  hope  by  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  as  radically  as  that  fact  differentiates  them. 
In  the  sequence  to  that  fact,  the  future  state  of 
man,  the  Christian  doctrine  of  immortality  is  given 
increasing  reality,  its  superior  excellences  exhibited, 
and  Christianity  is  distinguished  fundamentally 
from  all  that  claims  the  devotion  and  would  sustain 
the  hope  of  the  world. 

The  futurity  found  outside  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures is  a  spiritual  chaos ;  that  taught  in  the  Scrip- 
tures is  a  cosmos,  an  organized  spiritual  society. 
Well  defined,  harmonious  and  inviolable  laws  pre- 
vail in  man's  future  as  in  his  present  world — the 
same  moral  rule  exists  there  that  exists  here.  The 
universal  laws  of  right  and  ^vrong  hold  steadily  in  the 
soul's  whole  career,  in  both  worlds  and  to  remotest 
eternity.  Good  will  always  be  good,  and  bad  al- 
ways bad,  right  always  right  and  ^^Tong  always 
wrong ;  and  respect  for  the  eternal  distinction  will 

217 


2i8    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

be  recognized  yonder  as  here.  Death  destroys 
nothing  of  actual  moral  verity.  The  real  distinc- 
tions will  remain. 

The  reasonable  moral  distinctions  are  carried  over 
into  the  future  by  Christianity  and  by  no  other  re- 
ligion. A  rational  heaven  and  a  rational  hell  are 
fundamental  facts  of  the  Christian's  unique  creed. 
According  to  the  teachmg  of  the  ethnic  faiths,  the 
soul  in  its  moral  progress  either  loses  itself  or  looses 
itself ;  either  progresses  in  a  spurious  ethical  devel- 
opment to  the  vanishing  point,  or  it  escapes  the 
restraints  of  moral  law  by  reaching  a  sensual  para- 
dise where  license  is  given  man's  evil  passions. 
Such  immortality  might  be  pronounced  immorality. 
The  following  comprehensive  contrast  is  by  one 
who  has  studied  deep  and  long  the  ethnic  faiths 
and  as  a  faithful  missionary  for  many  years,  has  ac- 
quired a  personal  acquaintance  with  the  people  who 
hold  some  of  these  beliefs  :  "  Christianity  stands  in 
the  strongest  contrast  with  all  the  religions  in  the 
world  in  this  doctrine  of  heaven.  The  eternal,  sin- 
less, sorrowless  home  of  the  redeemed,  where  they 
shall  be  absolutely  faultless,  perfectly  happy  and 
clothed  in  heaven's  unfading  glory,  as  set  forth  in 
the  Christian  Scriptures,  is  a  conception  utterly  im- 
possible to  the  unaided  human  mind.  Contrast  with 
it  the  Elysium  of  the  ancient  Greeks  ;  the  Yalhalla 
or  warrior's  paradise  of  the  Scandinavians  where 
heroes  hold  high  carnival ;  the  Mrvana  of  Buddhism 
which  they  call  the  '  eternal  calm  '  but  w^hich  might 
better  be  called  the  eternal  blank;  the  Moham- 


A  Rational  Futurity  219 

medan  paradise  of  sensuous  pleasures,  where  the 
faithful  shall  recline  on  luxurious  couches,  attended 
by  beautiful  dark-eyed  nymphs  and  regale  them- 
selves with  most  delicious  viands ;  the  Hindu  loss 
of  personality  and  reabsorption  into  Deity.  Bud- 
dhism asks,  '  AVhat  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  ex- 
tinction f  '  Christianity  asks,  '  What  shall  I  do  to 
inherit  eternal  life  ? ' 

"  The  Christian  heaven  consists  in  a  state  of  holi- 
ness, bliss  and  glory  which  eye  has  not  seen  nor  ear 
heard  and  which  has  never  entered  into  the  heart 
of  man ;  but  which  God  has  revealed  by  His  Spirit. 
But  the  heavens  of  the  ethnic  religions  consist  in 
just  the  very  things  that  eye  has  seen  and  ear  has 
heard,  and  that  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man, 
happy  hunting  grounds,  luxurious  feasting,  gratifi- 
cation of  sensual  pleasures,  sleep.  In  the  Kevela- 
tion  the  curtain  which  hides  the  future  is  drawn 
aside,  and  we  catch  a  few  rapturous  glimpses  of  the 
kingdom  which  God  has  prepared  for  those  who 
love  Him.  And  what  do  we  behold  ?  Absolute 
purity ;  complete  conformity  to  God's  holy  will ; 
joy  unspeakable  ;  never  fading  glory ;  eternal  praise ; 
robes  of  spotless  whiteness,  emblematic  of  right- 
eousness ;  shining  crowns  and  triumphal  palms,  tell- 
ing of  victory  over  sin ;  loved  ones  reunited ;  tears 
all  wiped  away ;  sin  and  its  consequences,  sorrow, 
pain  and  death  forever  banished ;  full  redemption 
celebrated  in  grateful  songs  forevermore.  The 
transporting  prospect  purifies  and  elevates  the  soul, 
nerves  it  for  the  trials  and  conflicts  of  this  earthly 


220    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

state,  and  spans  the  grave  with  the  rainbow  of 
mimortal  hope.  Its  doctrine  of  heaven  alone  is 
sufficient  to  stamp  Christianity  as  di\ane,  for  it 
could  not  have  originated  with  man.  It  is  far 
above,  and  essentially  different  from  human  con- 
ceptions." * 

But  the  Christian's  heaven  is  not  a  creation  of 
the  imagination.  It  is  no  phantasy  formed  by  man 
in  his  dreams  of  immortality,  nor  bestowed  arbi- 
trarily by  omnific  Deity.  Heaven  and  hell  are 
the  natural  and  rational  corollaries  of  the  present 
moral  order  of  the  universe.  The  Christian  doc- 
trine of  moral  law  here  necessitates  just  and  right- 
eous recompense  yonder.  Accepting  moral  law  as 
the  rule  of  the  race,  we  cannot  escape  from  moral 
consequence — future  reward  and  future  punishment. 
Law  and  judgment  exist  together  and  only  together. 

Modern  science  has  established  no  facts  so  securely 
nor  emphasized  any  so  strongly  as  these,  that  law 
is  universal  in  its  operation,  that  there  is  security 
in  observing  law,  and  that  its  penalties  are  sure. 
Whether  it  be  the  case  of  a  man  or  a  planet,  liberty 
is  conditioned  on  conformity  to  law.  Disaster  to 
one's  self  and  danger  to  others  are  certain  to  fol- 
low lawbreaking.  The  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
future  conforms  to  this  rational  view  of  the  uni- 
verse. Heaven  and  hell  are  not  won  by  chance, 
nor  bestowed  bv  fickle  fortune,  nor  indiscriminate 
and  sentimental  condonation  of  man's  guilt.  A 
man  may  calculate  his  chances  of  heaven  and  hell 

1  W.  G.  Boggs. 


A  Rational  Futurity  221 

by  the  unerring  law  of  cause  and  effect,  by  just 
and  indiscriminate  statutes,  even  as  he  forecasts  the 
results  of  a  given  application  of  force  in  a  depart- 
ment of  physics,  or  calculates  the  illuminating 
power  of  an  electric  current,  the  expulsive  power 
of  a  chest  of  steam,  the  explosive  power  of  a 
quantity  of  dynamite.  He  may  anticipate  his  doom 
or  his  acquittal  as  confidently  as  he  can  foretell  the 
decision  of  an  upright  judge  with  a  given  case  of 
law  and  evidence  of  its  observance  or  violation 
before  him.  The  law  of  cause  and  effect,  of  right 
and  wrong,  operate  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
"  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap ; 
for  he  that  soweth  mito  his  own  flesh  shall  of  the 
flesh  reap  corruption,  but  he  that  soweth  unto  the 
Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  eternal  life"  (Gal. 
vi.  7-8).  Men  do  not  reach  heaven  by  a  blind 
favouritism  nor  hell  by  a  cruel  fatalism,  as  in 
Mohammedanism.  In  that  future  where  these 
mark  the  terminals  of  all  the  roads  men  take 
thither,  eternal  law  and  justice  reign.  We  "  must 
all  be  made  manifest  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ ;  that  each  one  may  receive  the  things  done 
in  the  body,  according  to  what  he  hath  done, 
whether  it  be  good  or  bad  "  (2  Cor.  v.  10). 

The  only  plausible  objection  yet  raised  to  future 
punishment  is  against  the  justice  of  it.  This  ob- 
jection is  founded  on  ignorance  of  Eevelation  at  the 
only  point  where  reasonable  objection  could  rest, 
namely :  punishment  is  administered  in  exact  pro- 
portion   to    one's    guilt,   "according    to    that    he 


222     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

hath  done."  The  extent  of  the  transgression,  the 
nature  of  it,  the  knowledge  and  light  possessed,  one's 
circumstances  and  opportunities,  all  shall  enter  into 
that  question  of  guilt  and  judgment.  Infinite  Wis- 
dom and  Justice  will  weigh  them  all  and  fix  an 
absolutely  rigliteous  and  impartial  penalty.  "  And 
that  servant,  who  knew  his  lord's  will,  and  made 
not  ready,  nor  did  according  to  his  will,  shall  be 
beaten  with  many  stripes;  but  he  that  knew  not, 
and  did  things  worthy  of  stripes,  shall  be  beaten 
with  few  stripes "  (Luke  xii.  47^8).  Innocence 
and  guilt  often  lie  down  together  in  the  same 
prison-cell  here,  but  not  so  in  the  future.  Inno- 
cence shall  be  vindicated  before  the  judgment  seat 
of  Christ  and  each  of  the  lost  and  unrepentant 
guilty  shall  be  given  sentence  in  degree  according 
to  individual  deserts.  There  is  no  other  rational 
and  just  doctrine  of  the  future  of  the  impenitent. 
A  God  of  justice  and  goodness  is  inconceivable 
apart  from  future  retribution  and  reward. 

There  will  be  no  divisions  on  fictitious  lines. 
There  is  to  be  no  change  of  the  moral  order.  N'o 
abandonment  by  the  all- wise  Author  of  law  of  His 
own  statutes  and  no  resort  to  new  expedients. 
There  come  no  surprises  and  no  emergencies  in 
God's  moral  government.  ]^ot  even  the  cross  of 
Christ  was  an  expedient,  as  Cowper  supposed  : 

*'  Point  to  the  cure,  describe  a  Saviour's  cross 
As  God's  expedient  to  retrieve  His  loss." 

John  had  a  better  understanding  of  the  nature  and 


A  Rational  Futurity  223 

government  of  God  and  viewing  the  divine  plans 
as  equivalent  to  performance,  declared  that  Jesus 
was  "  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world " 
(Rev.  xiii.  8).  Calvary  was  a  part  of  the  original 
program  of  the  universe.  It  was  not  a  divine  im- 
provisation to  avert  a  universal  catastrophe  pre- 
cipitated by  man's  breach  of  law,  but  a  foreordi- 
nation  to  prevent  one.  Provision  here  was  the 
complement  of  prevision.  The  provision  of  a 
remedy  for  sin  is  cotemporaneous  with  the  purpose 
to  create  man  a  free  moral  agent.  The  Atonement 
will  at  last  be  found  to  be  as  fundamental  in  its 
character  and  as  integral  a  part  of  the  moral  order 
as  the  hygienics  of  sunlight  are  of  the  physical 
world.  The  medicines  which  heal  the  sick  were 
stored  in  the  plants  of  the  field  and  roots  of  the 
forest  before  the  patient  was  born  but  for  his 
malady,  and  to  operate  in  conformity  to  recognized 
physical  laws.  Without  a  true  doctrine  of  atone- 
ment, all  the  heathen  religions  hold  unreal  views 
of  sin.  Indeed,  in  Christian  lands,  a  false  doctrine 
of  sin  invariably  accompanies  a  false  doctrine  of 
the  Atonement.  The  true  view  of  sin  and  for- 
giveness like  the  science  of  diagnosis  and  treatment 
of  disease  advance  together.  The  existence  of  the 
false  view  of  either  marks  an  ignorance  of  the  law 
to  which  both  conform.  Paul  speaks  of  "  the  law 
of  faith,"  and  we  will  yet  learn  that  faith  is  in  as 
harmonious  conformity  to  the  moral  order  as  san- 
itation and  medication  are  to  physical  law. 

The  Christian  doctrine  of  redemption  and  futurity 


224    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

rest  upon  this  substantial  rational  basis.  Punish- 
ment and  reward  are  necessary  inferences  drawn 
from  the  permanence  and  universal  prevalence  of 
moral  law.  If  it  be  found  that  under  moral  law 
goodness  has  its  reward  and  badness  its  penalties 
here,  there  is  no  rational  escape  from  the  conclusion 
that  this  order  prevails  everywhere  and  will  prevail 
forever.  Our  natures  persuade  us  that  God  is 
eternally  just  and  that  the  future  will  alford  no 
escape  from  His  justice.  Goldwin  Smith  presented 
a  pitiful  spectacle  of  a  man  at  the  end  of  a  long 
life  with  an  interrogation  point  before  him.  But 
he  seems  to  have  treated  his  nature  honestly 
though  he  mocked  at  Christianity  and  rejected 
its  comfort.  "  Now,"  he  says,  "  there  does  seem  to 
be  a  voice  in  every  man  which  if  he  will  listen  to 
it,  tells  him  that  his  account  is  not  closed  at  death. 
The  good  man,  however  unfortunate  he  may  have 
been,  and  even  though  he  may  not  have  found 
integrity  profitable,  feels  at  the  end  of  life  a  satis- 
faction in  his  past  and  an  assurance  that  in  the  sum 
of  things  he  will  find  that  he  has  chosen  right. 
The  most  obdurately  wicked  man,  however  his 
wickedness  may  have  prospered,  will  probably 
wish  when  he  comes  to  die  that  he  had  lived  the 
life  of  the  righteous."  ^ 

The  doctrine  of  future  punishment  is  not  as  some 
superficial  sentimentalists  teach,  a  remnant  of 
ignorant  and  barbaric  times.  It  conforms  to  ra- 
tional,   historical    evolution,    growing    with    the 

1  "  Guesses  at  the  Riddle  of  Existence,"  pp.  126-127. 


A  Rational  Futurity  225 

growth  of  religious  literature  and  knowledge. 
The  most  ancient  religious  faiths  have  least  of  this 
doctrine  in  them.  It  grows  steadily  more  luminous 
from  its  first  glimmer  in  Hebrew  literature  to  the 
close  of  the  Christian  Scriptures.  The  most  ad- 
vanced period  of  Biblical  literature  is  that  which 
is  most  characterized  by  this  revelation  of  future 
punishment.  ]^ot  the  Pentateuch  but  the  Revela- 
tion is  lurid  with  the  fierce  fires  of  God's  wrath. 
Not  some  ancient  heathen,  nor  Moses,  Plato,  nor 
Aristotle,  Brahma,  nor  Buddha,  but  Christ  and 
those  taught  by  Him  were  the  great  expounders 
of  this  doctrine.  It  grows  vnih  the  larger  and 
more  fundamental  truths  of  revelation ;  with  the 
higher  ethics,  with  the  hope  of  immortality,  re- 
demption and  the  doctrines  of  grace.  It  will  con- 
tinue more  and  more  to  claim  a  larger  attention 
with  the  growth  of  true  religion  and  true  and 
reverent  scientific  knowledge.  In  the  light  of 
moral  law,  as  now  accepted,  the  denial  of  future 
punishment  for  those  who  persistently  rebel  against 
that  law  must  be  considered  irrational. 

The  Christian  doctrine  of  reward  and  punish- 
menc  is  in  striking  harmony  w^ith  our  present 
knowledge  and  equally  bold  and  striking  contrast 
with  the  vague  and  fortuitous  futurity  of  all  the 
ethnic  faiths.  Some  of  these  are  such  medleys  of 
conflicting  philosophies  that  no  consistent  theory  of 
the  future  can  be  adduced  from  them,  as  the  fol- 
lowing language  by  such  authorities  as  F.  W.  Rhys 
Davids  and  Dr.  A.  B.  Bruce  indicates.     The  first 


226    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

says  that  the  "  Buddhistic  doctrine  of  salvation  was 
that  it  could  only  be  enjoyed  in  this  life  and  there 
was  no  salvation  at  all  beyond  the  grave."  ^  Dr. 
Bruce  is  equally  explicit  in  declaring  that  the  Bud- 
dhistic theory  of  rewards  and  punishments  is : 
"Men  who  have  lived  good  lives  in  this  world 
may  go  at  death  to  a  place  of  damnation  and  men 
who  have  lived  here  bad  lives  may  pass  into  the 
heaven  of  the  gods.  The  damnation  in  the  one 
case  is  the  late  fruitage  of  some  evil  done  in  long 
bygone  ages  and  the  bliss  in  the  other  case  tardy 
recompense  of  good  deeds  done  in  a  previous  state 
of  existence." 2  "The  Buddhist's  heaven,  annihi- 
lation, is  one  form  in  which  men  in  Chinstian  lands 
hold  the  doctrine  of  hell.  This  is  a  sign  of  es- 
sential difference  between  the  two  beliefs."  ^  To 
say  nothing  of  how  these  theories  contradict  them- 
selves, they  are  all  irrational.  Brahmanism  and  Bud- 
dhism cannot  commend  themselves  to  intelligence 
possessed  of  modern  knowledge.  As  a  philosophy 
they  are  incoherent  and  as  a  religion,  they  lack 
the  fundamentals  of  religion,  including  a  rational 
moral  order  for  the  universe.  It  was  a  heathen 
poet  who  sang  of  the  Lethe  in  which  the  bather 
forgot  all  misery  and  sorrow  and  a  Christian  Dante 
who  sang  of  the  river  Eunoe,  bathing  in  which,  one 
remembered  all  the  pleasant  things  of  his  past  life. 
The  difference   between  these  conceptions  is  the 

1  "  Great  Religions  of  the  World,"  p.  26. 

8  "  The  Moral  Order  of  the  World,"  pp.  21-22. 

"  Why  is  Christianity  True  ?"£.¥,  MuUens,  p.  94. 


A  Rational  Futurity  227 

difference  between  the  heaven  of  Brahmanism  and 
that  of  Christianity.  One  represents  a  lapse  of 
function  and  of  rational  order,  the  other  represents 
their  perfection. 

Between  the  individual's  death  and  the  final 
*'  Liberation  "  of  Brahmanism  there  may  be  count- 
less ages  of  vicissitudes  before  the  personality  is 
lost  in  its  goal  of  impersonal  existence.  One  is  re- 
minded of  the  lines  of  Nehemiah  Dodge  addressed 
to  a  skeleton : 


*'  Of  what  avail  is  all  the  strife, 
The  stress  and  toil  of  human  life ; 
If  this  wan  spectre  is  the  goal, 
The  final  answer  to  the  soul." 


Goethe  says :  "  Those  who  respect  no  other  life 
are  for  this  life  already  dead."  The  Mohammedan 
heaven  is  neither  rational,  moral  nor  restricted  to 
those  who  scrupulously  pursue  morality.  A  sensual 
heaven  is  provided  for  sensual  men.  "  In  a  word, 
he  (Mohammed's  god)  burns  one  individual  through 
all  eternity  amid  red-hot  chains  and  seas  of  molten 
fire  and  seats  another  in  a  plenary  enjoyment  of  an 
everlasting  brothel  between  forty  celestial  concu- 
bines just  equally  for  his  own  good  pleasure  and 
because  he  wills  it." '  Moral  law  which  is  the 
order  of  God's  universe,  is  trifled  with  and  that 
order  is  turned  topsyturvy  in  the  world  where 
reasonably  we  should  expect  to  find  its  peaceful 

^  Palgrove,  quoted  by  J.  F.  Clark. 


228    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

and  harmonious  reign.  ""Wrath  is  not  free  from 
passion  and  hoKness  comes  short  of  its  right."  ^ 

It  is  patent  that  the  Christian  view  of  the  future 
also  rationally  subserves  the  ends  of  morality  in  the 
present  world.  The  unpossibility  of  heaven  with- 
out a  pure  heart  and  the  certainty  of  hell  if  one  is 
unrighteous,  constitute  the  strongest  restraint  upon 
the  unlawful  passions  of  men  in  every  age  and 
country,  the  enlightened  as  well  as  the  ignorant. 
A  line  test  of  any  religious  doctrine  is  the  man  it 
makes.  Mohammedans  can  abrogate  the  decalogue 
in  their  moral  behaviour,  because  Mohammed  first 
abrogated  moral  law  in  the  heaven  and  hell  which 
his  imagination  created.  The  moral  and  social  con- 
trast between  every  non-Christian  land  on  the  globe 
and  any  Christian  land  is  a  sign  of  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  non-Christian  and  the  Chidstian  doctrine 
of  the  future.  The  distinction  is  radical  and  fun- 
damental in  religion  and  to  all  that  religion  pro- 
poses to  accomplish  for  the  race. 

Heaven  provides  compensation  for  the  injustices, 
inequalities  and  the  vicarious  sacrifices  of  the  good 
whose  faith  and  life  are  purest  in  this  life.  To 
some  of  these,  God  now  allows  most  of  earthly  ill. 
Eeason  tells  us  that  for  such  the  future  holds : 


''The  lucid  interspace  of  world  and  world 
Where  never  creeps  a  cloud  or  moves  a  wind, 
Nor  ever  falls  the  least  white  star  of  snow, 

*"  Moslem  Doctrine  of  God,"  Swemer,  p.  llS, 


A  Rational  Futurity  229 

Nor  ever  lowest  roll  of  thunder  moans, 
Nor  sound  of  human  sorrow  mounts  to  mar 
Their  sacred  everlasting  calm." 

(  Tennyson'' 8  '  ''Lucretius. ' ' ) 

In  no  other  view  of  human  life  is  there  end  to  hu- 
man sin,  or  healing  for  human  sorrow.  Balzac 
speaks  from  wide  observation  when  he  refers  to 
this  doctrine  as  "  That  form  of  faith  which  is  most 
conducive  to  social  order,  namely :  future  recom- 
pense— the  only  belief  which  can  make  mankind 
accept  their  misery."  '  "  If  it  is  a  poor  philosophy 
which  calls  in  the  rewards  and  penalties  of  another 
life  to  redress  the  wrongs  caused  by  the  unequal  dis- 
tribution of  pleasure  and  pain  in  this,  yet  no  argu- 
ment which  attempts  to  justify  the  ways  of  God  to 
men  can  afford  to  forget  the  full  measure  and  dura- 
tion of  God's  relations  to  man.  Time  and  eternity 
are  one ;  he  who  is  and  who  is  to  be  are  one  and 
the  same  person ;  and  his  life,  its  meaning,  purpose, 
discipline,  can  never  be  understood  if  he  be  re- 
garded as  a  mere  mortal  being,  with  no  existence 
save  what  begins  with  birth  and  ends  at  death. 
The  scale  on  which  an  immortal  being  is  planned 
is  not  commensurate  with  any  measure  of  mortal- 
ity ;  and  what  to  a  mortal  might  well  seem  unmiti- 
gated evil  may  appear  to  the  immortal  only  a  dis- 
cipline the  better  qualifying  liim  for  his  immortal- 
ity." ^ 

*  "  Country  Doctor,"  p.  25. 

^  Fairbairn's  "Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  pp.  149- 
150, 


230    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

The  Christian  view  of  the  future  is  incomparable 
as  an  incentive  to  purity  of  life,  to  highest  moral 
endeavour  and  a  patient  hopefulness  amidst  life's 
ills.  "  Every  one  that  hath  this  hope  set  on  him, 
purifieth  himself"  (1  John  iii.  3).  It  has  in  it 
greater  motor  power  for  worthy  living  than  can  be 
found  in  all  other  religious  thought  combined.  All 
classes,  the  man  on  the  plane  nearest  the  animal 
and  the  man  of  highest  ethical  development,  are 
responsive  to  these  motives.  Self-preservation,  self- 
improvement,  noble  ambition,  highest  social  in- 
stinct, ethical  and  even  artistic  idealism — all  are 
appealed  to.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  of 
stronger  incentives  than  are  here  furnished  or  an 
ideal  so  lofty  that  the  Christian  doctrine  of  heaven 
does  not  furnish  ground  for  its  inspiration,  room 
for  its  entertainment  and  promise  of  its  realization. 
The  richest  hope  of  heaven  is  the  character  to  be 
attained  there.  The  blessings  provided  and  enjoyed 
are  secondary  to  the  perfection  of  the  life  itself  and 
are  suited  to  such  a  life  only.  Religion,  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  begets  in  its  converts  a  supreme  im- 
patience with  personal  moral  imperfection  and  an 
intense  passion  for  righteousness  which  groAV  with 
advancing  development  of  the  spiritual  life.  The 
hope  of  a  perfect  character  becomes  the  most  cov<. 
eted  reward  of  heaven.  It  is  just  this  that  the 
Christian's  heaven  shall  provide.  The  spiritual  cli- 
mate and  the  company  of  heaven  are  perfectly 
congenial  for  one  with  such  desires  and  shall 
hasten  his  maturity.     The  crown  of  heaven  is  to 


A  Rational  Futurity  231 

be  a  crown  of  character  and  not  a  material  cor- 
onet. It  is  called  a  "  crown  of  life,"  a  "  crown 
of  righteousness,"  a  "crown  of  glory."  Life  and 
righteousness  shall  then  come  to  the  glory  of 
perfection,  crowning  all  growth.  The  royal  dia- 
dem shall  be  likeness  to  Him  whose  glorious  image 
God  predestinated  us  to  be  conformed  to.  "  Blessed 
are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  : 
for  they  shall  be  filled  "  (Matt.  v.  6).  The  intens- 
est,  the  one  impatient  desire  of  the  Christian  is 
moral  perfection,  and  heaven  fulfills  that  desire. 
"  As  for  me,  I  shall  behold  Thy  face  in  righteous- 
ness ;  I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  in  Thy  like- 
ness "  (Psa.  xvii.  15).  "  Henceforth  there  is  laid 
up  for  me  the  crown  of  righteousness  which  the 
Lord,  the  righteous  judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day  " 
(2  Tun.  iv.  8).  The  Christian  man  may  dream  his 
fondest  dreams,  indulge  his  largest  hopes,  nurse  his 
loftiest  ambitions,  think  his  highest  thoughts  of 
goodness,  beauty,  love,  holiness  and  happiness,  and 
his  most  ravishing  ideal  will  tame  and  dull  before 
the  bright  reality  which  awaits  him. 

"  AH  we  have  willed  or  hoped  or  dreamed  of  good  shall  exist : 
Not  its  semblance,  but  itself :  no  beauty  nor  good  nor  power 
Whose  voice  has  gone  forth,  but  each  survives  for  the  melodist 
When  eternity  affirms  the  conception  of  an  hour." 

{Boibert  Browning.) 


YIII 

CONCLUSIONS 

THEEE  are  some  inferences  from  all  this, 
and  they  ought  to  be  so  framed  as  to  be 
the  last  things  forgotten  of  all  that  is 
said  in  these  pages,  for  they  are  the  most  prac- 
tical. If  the  seven  great  doctrinal  facts  here  set 
down  are  the  structm'al  elements  of  Christianity, 
and  if,  as  we  claim,  they  are  peculiar  to  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  then  certainly  there  must  follow  some 
most  momentous  and  important  duties — duties  so 
important  indeed,  that  they  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated. Whether  we  shall  adequately  state  these 
or  not,  we  shall  at  least  hope  so  to  call  attention 
to  them  that  what  has  been  written  shall  not  be 
wholly  without  pure  missionary  results.  What 
then  is  the  logic  of  these  facts  ? 

First,  the  unique  character  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion constituted  by  its  essential  and  saving  elements 
establishes  a  foundation  for  the  missionary  enter- 
prise. We  have  heard  it  said  that  the  command  of 
Jesus  is  the  fundamental  reason  for  missions. 
That  indeed  ought  to  be  reason  enough  for  one  who 
acknowledges  His  lordship.  But  Jesus  Himself 
had  a  reason  for  giving  the  command.  What  was 
His  reason  ?  It  was  that  the  gospel  of  salvation  is 
absolutely  unique  and  peculiarly  a  Chi'istian  posses- 

232 


Conclusions  233 

sion,  not  one  of  its  essential  doctrines  being  con- 
tained in  any  other  religion  or  religious  philosophy. 
We  alone  have  a  Kevelation,  a  Gospel,  a  Saviour ; 
we  alone  are  God's  stewards  for  all  men  of  a  sure 
message  of  life.  We  are  debtors  to  all,  Greek, 
barbarian,  bond  and  free  because  we  hold  in  trust 
for  them  God's  bounty  of  savmg  truth.  The 
Christian  people  are  the  "  Stewards  of  the  mysteries 
of  God  "  (1  Cor.  iv.  1).  "  Stewards  of  the  manifold 
grace  of  God  "  (1  Pet.  iv.  10).  Sianers  saved  by 
the  grace  of  God  that  we  are,  we  must  needs  re- 
member that  only  by  that  grace  which  saved  us  and 
of  which  we  are  God's  stewards  can  any  man  be 
saved. 

This  constitutes  a  substantial  missionary  appeal. 
It  must  be  set  to  the  front.  Many  of  the  old  ap- 
peals are  losing  their  power.  Sectarianism  and 
mere  denominationalism  are  not  now  strong  enough 
to  hold  the  Christian  conscience.  Sentimental  and 
anecdotal  pathos  is  losing  its  power  over  most  au- 
diences and  in  quarters  where  it  still  brings  forth 
tears  it  fails  to  briag  forth  dollars.  If  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise  is  to  command  the  quality  of 
men  and  the  quantity  of  money  it  needs  the  appeal 
must  henceforth  rest  upon  something  more  pro- 
foundly real,  and  therefore  more  reasonable,  than 
shallow  sentiment  and  cheap  romance.  That  need 
is  found  in  the  unique  character  of  Christianity 
and  the  peculiar  religious  value  of  its  distinctive 
doctrines.  In  these  alone  is  to  be  found  justifica- 
tion for  an  adequate  expenditure  of  life,  money  and 


234    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

energy  to  carry  the  enterprise  to  successful  con- 
summation. If  we  only  have  the  Word  of  hfe, 
without  which  the  world  must  die,  indeed  is  dead, 
then  whether  by  life  or  death,  that  word  must  be 
carried  to  every  man.  Its  proclamation  is  the  su- 
preme business  of  ever  redeemed  life.  To  give 
such  a  gospel  to  the  nations  is  worth  the  brightest 
and  best,  and  their  highest  and  best.  All  service 
and  sacrifice  and  all  gifts  and  self-denial  for  this 
cause  are  inconsequential  and  incommensurable 
considerations  compared  with  the  simple,  awful 
and  inevitable  fact  consequent  upon  failure  and  de- 
lay of  the  enterprise.  That  which  will  send  the 
heralds  of  the  cross  to  other  shores  with  tongues 
of  Hre,  is  a  settled  conviction  not  that  we  have 
a  religion,  nor  even  that  we  have  the  hest  re- 
ligion, but  that  we  have  the  only  religion. 

We  are  not  to  forget  that  Brahmanism,  Bud- 
dhism, Confucianism,  Judaism  and  the  Egyptian 
religion,  the  Grecian  and  Latin  philosophies  all 
existed  in  Jesus'  day,  but  to  all  alike  He  commanded 
His  disciples  to  go  with  the  gospel  and  the  un- 
minced  message,  "  He  that  believeth  and  is  bap- 
tized shall  be  saved;  but  he  that  disbeheveth 
shall  be  condemned  "  (Mark  xvi.  16).  JN^o  religion 
and  no  philosophy  can  stand  any  one  instead  of 
this  gospel,  preempt  any  part  of  the  field  or  oifer 
a  reasonable  excuse  for  our  neglect  and  indifference. 
This  universal  mission  of  (^ivistianity  and  the  cor- 
responding imperative  to  cjspiace  every  other 
religion  with  these  doctrines  is  a  conclusion  which 


Conclusions  235 

all  must  have  reached  who  have  admitted  that  these 
doctrines  constitute  a  unique  message.  This  point 
need  not  therefore  be  further  elaborated. 

There  are  other  conclusions  equally  pertinent  but 
which  may  not  be  so  apparent  to  some  until  they 
are  pointed  out.  We  may,  therefore,  give  the  re- 
mainder of  our  space  to  a  presentation  of  these. 

Second,  then,  the  uniqueness  of  the  Christian 
message  establishes  for  it  a  peculiar  claim  upon 
the  Christian  pulpit.  It  may  well  be  doubted 
whether  there  is  a  more  important  matter  for  the 
minister  of  these  times  to  settle  than  what  shall  be 
the  themes  and  the  substance  of  his  pulpit  dis- 
courses. The  minister  was  perhaps  never  so  mul- 
tiscient,  never  knew  so  many  things  about  the 
Bible,  about  the  gospel,  about  religion ;  was  never 
so  well  taught  in  so  many  things  about  hoio  to  tell 
what  he  knows,  and  yet  if  the  pulpit  announce- 
ments in  many  metropolitan  dailies  really  mean 
what  they  say,  many,  very  many  preachers  of  the 
highest  training  do  not  know  what  to  preach.  We 
have  collected  pulpit  announcements  made  in  the 
daily  papers  of  several  cities.  Here  are  a  few  sam- 
ples: One  popular  preacher  announces  that  he 
will  preach  on  "  Society's  Joss  House,"  and  "  The 
Automatic  Calf  "  ;  another  promises  all  who  attend 
the  "  First  Church  "  on  successive  Sundays  disser- 
tations on  "  Skidoo-23,"  the  "  Eeligious  Donkey," 
"  Casey  at  the  Bat,"  "  Am  I  a  Monkey  or  a  Man  ?  " 
Another  "  First  Church  "  flock  received  instruction 
upon  "  A    Nagging    Spouse,"  "  A    Patriotic    Old 


236    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Maid  "  ;  while  another  announces  that,  just  before 
observing  the  Lord's  Supper,  he  will  preach  on  the 
symbolism  of  his  city !  One  cultured  and  gifted 
pastor  invited  the  young  people  to  come  and  hear 
him  preach  on  "  Courting  in  a  Street  Car."  Such 
pulpit  announcements  either  do  not  mean  what 
they  say  and  are,  therefore,  a  form  of  deception,  or 
they  declare  plainly  that  the  men  who  make  them 
do  not  always  preach  the  gospel  from  their  pulpits. 
Whatever  be  the  alternative  the  case  is  a  sad  one 
and  gives  occasion  for  serious  thought.  When  a 
man  receives  a  call  to  the  ministry  he  is  under 
commission  to  deliver  a  specific  message.  A 
preacher  ought  to  have  no  misgivings  as  to  the 
inner  call  and  must  certainly  have  none  with  re- 
gard to  his  message :  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world 
and  preach  the  gospel."  There  is  no  mistaking 
what  the  preacher  has  a  commission  to  proclaim. 
His  call,  when  appreciated,  in  its  simplicity  and 
fullness,  is  a  call  of  the  whole  man  for  his  whole 
time  to  preach  the  whole  gospel,  and  only  the  gos- 
pel, to  every  creature. 

And  yet  the  age  is  full  of  enticements.  Morn- 
ing after  morning  just  as  the  preacher  is  ready  to 
enter  his  study  or  his  pulpit,  the  public  mind  is  set 
aflame  with  some  sensation  of  the  hour.  Why 
should  he  not  adopt  the  course  of  least  resistance 
and  sail  his  craft  by  the  popular  winds  with  the 
hope  that  somehow  he  may  be  able  to  cast  his  net 
into  the  midst  of  a  school  of  curious  but  unwary 
fishes  ?    Ts  there  not  more  sport  in  fishing  where 


Conclusions  237 

there  are  fish  than  where  there  are  none  even  if  you 
catch  nothing  ?  They  will  follow  the  bait  for  a 
while  if  they  do  not  bite  the  hook.  And  then  the 
age  takes  notice  of  a  preacher  who  preaches  to  a 
crowd.  Pulpit  committees  want  men  who  will 
draw.  The  preacher  must  get  the  ear  of  the  public 
and  how  can  he  better  do  it  than  by  talking  about 
things  in  which  the  public  is  interested  ?  Is  it  not 
easier  to  think  with  the  people  than  think  for  them  ? 

'Now  to  the  superficial  observer,  and  the  super- 
ficial only,  does  the  plausibility  of  this  appear. 
But  if  this  really  furnished  an  easy  solution  to  the 
minister's  problem  and  assured  his  success,  is  there 
not  patent  in  such  a  course  a  lowering  of  minis- 
terial function  and  such  a  confession  of  personal 
weakness  as  is  certain  to  breed  self -contempt  ? 
How  can  a  genuine  man,  with  a  minister's  training, 
take  his  cue  from  strippling  newspaper  reporters, 
and  admit  that  they  can  with  petty  gossip  get  an 
audience  which  he  cannot  with  the  eternal,  glorious 
gospel  of  his  Lord?  And  how  can  he  abandon 
the  gospel  for  gossip  and  steal  the  reporter's  audi- 
ence and  call  it  his  congregation  ? 

The  case  is  just  as  bad  as  that  and  worse,  for  it 
marks  the  degeneracy  of  God's  highest  man  and 
the  prostitution  of  man's  highest  calling,  betrays 
infidelity  to  the  most  sacred  trust,  and  then,  at  the 
last,  ends  in  failure.  Great  audiences  have  waited 
on  the  ministry  of  preachers  who  delivered  their 
own  messages  upon  great  themes,  owned  their  own 
souls    and    preserved  their  consciences   and   self- 


238    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

respect  meanwhile.  "  It  is  well  for  the  preacher 
enveloped  by  our  secular  spirit  to  remember  that 
burning  subjects  soon  die  into  white  ashes,  and 
then  when  this  artificial  fire  has  perished  audiences 
also  grow  cold  and  seek  some  other  hearth,  while 
congregations  which  are  fed  with  the  living  bread 
grow  more  receptive  every  day,  and  will  not  lightly 
forsake  the  teacher  who  has  satisfied  the  hunger  of 
the  soul." '  The  following  from  Dr.  W.  M.  Clow, 
who  is  himself  a  fine  illustration  of  this  truth,  states 
a  tunely  fact  for  many  preachers :  "  It  explains  the 
secret  of  those  large,  enthusiastic  congregations, 
eager  in  missionary  enterprise,  generous  in  gift, 
breeding  the  men  who  serve  in  the  benevolences 
and  philanthropies  of  the  world.  They  have  been 
founded  and  fostered  by  the  preaching  of  the  Cross. 
There  are  other  ways  of  gathering  an  audience. 
Eloquence,  taste,  a  quick  appreciation  of  what  men 
wish  to  hear  about,  an  artistry  in  the  service,  all 
have  their  just  reward.  But  no  great  congrega- 
tion, which  is  both  permanent  and  strong,  can  be 
built  up  except  by  giving  the  primacy  to  the  Atone- 
ment in  Christ's  blood."  ^  There  is  scarcely  an 
exception  to  the  rule ;  the  men  who  through  the 
whole  Christian  era  have  steadily  held  the  masses 
to  their  ministry  and  ^^T:'ought  mighty  works  for 
God  among  men  have  handled  Bible  themes. 
Here  alone  can  the  preacher  find  a  perennially 

^  "  God's  Message  to  the  Human  Soul,"  John  "Watson,  D.  D., 
p.  204. 

'  "The  Cross  in  Christian  Experience,"  pp.  322-323. 


Conclusions  239 

fresh  and  infinitely  varied  repertoire  of  subjects 
for  his  age,  and  most  of  all  for  this  age,  jaded  with 
cheap  sensationalism. 

But  these  great  themes  have  a  still  greater  claim 
upon  the  preacher.  His  business  is  not  to  create  a 
sensation,  much  less  to  echo  one,  nor  make  a 
spectacle,  nor  to  get  a  crowd,  nor  become  a  popu- 
lar hero,  but  to  save  lost  men.  Success  in  the  main 
business  will  indeed  make  a  sensation  and  draw 
the  multitudes,  but  these  are  inconsequential 
results  compared  with  winning  sinners.  And  sin- 
ners can  be  effectually  and  really  won  with  noth- 
ing less  than  the  gospel.  The  greatest  preacher  of 
the  ages  was  the  greatest  soul  winner,  because  he 
could  say,  "  I  make  known  unto  you,  brethren,  the 
gospel,  which  I  preached  unto  you,  which  also  ye 
received,  wherein  also  ye  stand,  by  which  also  ye 
are  saved"  (1  Cor.  xv.  1,  2).  And  agam,  "In 
Christ  Jesus  I  begat  you  through  the  gospel" 
(1  Cor.  iv.  15).  While  we  cannot  wholly  agree 
with  Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  in  his  sweeping  in- 
dictment of  "the  younger  generation  of  preachers," 
his  words  may  well  be  taken  as  a  warning  by  all. 
"  The  effects,"  he  says,  "  of  this  (the  resistance  of 
the  theology  of  Paul)  are  already  appearing  in  the 
impoverished  religious  values  of  the  sermons  pro- 
duced by  the  younger  generation  of  preachers ;  and 
the  deplorable  decline  of  spiritual  life  and  knowl- 
edge in  many  churches.  Eesults  open  to  observa- 
tion show  that  the  movement  to  simplify  the 
Christian  essence  by  discarding  the  theology  of  St. 


240    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

Paul  easily  carries  the  teaching  of  the  Christian 
pulpit  to  a  position  where,  for  those  who  submit  to 
that  teaching,  the  characteristic  experiences  of  the 
Christian  life  become  practically  impossible.  The 
Christian  sense  of  sin ;  Christian  penitence  at  the 
foot  of  the  Cross ;  Christian  faith  in  an  Atoning 
Saviour;  Christian  peace  with  God  through  the 
mediation  of  Jesus  Christ — these  and  other  experi- 
ences, which  were  the  very  life  of  apostles  and  of 
apostolic  souls,  fade  from  the  view  of  the  ministry, 
have  no  meaning  for  the  younger  generation. 
After  twenty  centuries  of  power  they  are  mini- 
mized in  the  life  of  the  Church." '  The  man  who 
covets  souls  for  his  hire  must  preach  on  these 
themes.  The  minister  who  does  not  covet  souls 
courts  guilt.  He  cannot  be  innocent  before  God 
and  indifferent  to  a  lost  humanity.  Lucy  Larcom 
voices  the  soul  of  the  true  minister. 

"There  be  sad  women,  guilty  and  poor, 
And  those  who  walk  in  garments  soiled  ; 
Their  shame,  their  sorrow  I  endure, 
By  their  defeat  my  hope  is  foiled  ; 
The  blot  they  bear  is  on  my  name 
Who  sins,  and  I  am  not  to  blame  ?  " 

The  minister  has  a  remedy  for  sin  and  must  hurry 
to  those  who  are  sick  with  this  fatal  disease.  This 
age  makes  a  peculiar  demand  upon  the  minister  of 
the  gospel.     He  should  know  his  message,  be  spe- 

*"The  Universal   Elements  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  pp. 
140-141. 


Conclusions 


241 


cific  and  sound  it  out  clearly  and  distinctly.  Many 
false  prophets  have  arisen.  Never  were  there  so 
many  opinions  hawked  in  the  name  of  reUgion  as 
to-day.  Our  age  and  country  reminds  one  of 
Paul's  time  and  Greece.  This  keen-eyed  preacher 
perceived  that  the  Athenians  had  many  rehgions 
and  the  multitude  of  isms  drew  him  to  the  conclu- 
sion and  from  him  the  declaration  that  he  would 
know  nothing  but  Christ  crucified  among  the 
Greeks.  The  one  cure  for  all  this  surfeit  of  re- 
ligion and  half-religion  and  consequent  religious 
disease  of  our  times  is  vigorous  and  repeated  doses 
of  pure  gospel  tonic.  The  religious  practitioner 
must  dispense  the  pure  essence  of  the  gospel,  the 
essentials  of  Christianity  and  of  salvation  to  this 
sadly  debilitated  age  to  save  it  from  the  moral 
death  to  which  it  is  being  hastened  by  religious 
nostrum  mongers.  It  often  takes,  if  anything, 
more  gospel  and  it  more  skillfully  and  heroically 
administered  to  save  a  man  from  his  religion  than 
from  his  sins.  Jesus  pronounced  woe  upon  the 
Pharisees  because  they  compassed  sea  and  land  to 
make  one  proselyte  and  when  he  was  made,  he  was 
twofold  more  a  child  of  hell  than  themselves.  The 
higher  the  type  of  religion  which  a  man  has  in  cor- 
rupted and  ineffectual  form,  the  more  difficult  his 
conversion.  Many  so-called  converts  are  sadly  de- 
ceived perverts.  The  message  for  these  must  be 
one  that  has  virtue  in  it.  The  words  of  Yenet 
quoted  by  Christlieb  have  a  pertinence  for  our  age. 
"  We  must  revert  to  the  elementary,  fundamental 


242    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

and  eternally  unshaken  points  if  we  desire  that  a 
new  generation  shall  again  be  fed  with  the  bread 
of  Hfe." 

The  age  presents  a  favourable  setting  for  these 
great  truths.  When  so  many  are  heard  crying  in 
a  babel  of  contradictory  tongues  and  the  people  are 
bewildered  by  unintelligible  reHgious  jargon,  then 
is  a  good  time  for  a  man  with  a  true  and  well-de- 
fined message  to  send  out  a  long,  strong  blast  of 
his  gospel  trumpet,  calling  the  people  to  hear. 
Well  attested,  distinctive  truth  has  a  great  hour 
now,  if  :iily  it  can  find  friends  to  advocate  it. 
These  great  doctrines  of  inspiration  and  redemp- 
tion shine  gloriously  against  the  background  Avhich 
this  age  presents.  The  man  who  at  such  a  time 
modifies  his  message  to  suit  the  age,  falls  into  a 
trap,  whether  the  modification  be  to  suit  the  false 
religious  sentiment  of  the  times,  or  the  demands  of 
modern  science.  Indeed  if  one  begins  to  modify 
his  message,  when  will  the  process  be  done  and 
what  will  be  the  final  result?  Suppose,  for  in- 
stance, the  pulpit  had,  twenty  years  ago,  trimmed 
down  its  Christian  doctrines  to  the  theory  of  evo- 
lution then  rampant,  what  would  be  the  condition 
of  theology  to-day  ?  It  would  not  be  merely  more 
trunming  down  that  is  needed.  That  indeed  might 
be  simple.  But  we  would  be  faced  with  the  diffi- 
cult task  of  piecing  out  a  theology  which  had  been 
cut  too  short.  Evolution  to-dav  does  not  demand 
the  modifications  in  the  realm  of  theology  which  it 
demanded  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.     Itself  has 


Conclusions 


243 


been  modified  in  recent  years.  The  man  who  cut 
his  doctrine  down  at  the  first  call  is  short  on  doc- 
trine now  even  in  the  eyes  of  evolutionists.  And 
so  the  process  continues.  Nothing  in  the  province 
of  human  thought  and  knowledge  is  so  sure  and 
unchangeable  and  so  certain  to  be  found  in  har- 
mony with  pure  reason  and  pure  science  when  their 
work  is  complete  as  are  the  verities  of  the  Chi'is- 
tian  faith. 

We  put  it  down,  therefore,  as  the  second  infer- 
ence from  these  peculiar  and  essential  elements  of 
the  Christian  religion  that  they  should  find  a  larger 
place  in  the  pulpit. 

The  third  deduction  follows  naturally  upon  this, 
namely,  the  friends  of  evangelical  Christianity 
must  make  sure  of  the  permanence  of  these  truths 
in  their  present  strongholds  if  we  are  to  have  re- 
sources sufficient  to  carry  the  missionary  enterprise 
on  to  successful  and  final  issue.  The  saving  truths 
of  the  gospel  are  distinctively  recognized  and  fairly 
positioned  by  comparatively  few  Christian  com- 
munities, among  a  small  part  of  the  race  and  in  a 
very  limited  area.  They  stand  in  bolder  relief  and 
have  greater  freedom  of  action  among  the  evangel- 
ical denominations  of  America  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  world.  Eitualism  and  ecclesiasticism  so  veil 
and  impoverish  them  in  many  quarters  that  they 
lose  much  of  their  distinctiveness  and  regenerating 
power.  They  have  from  the  very  first  had  stronger 
emphasis  and  a  better  proportioned  setting  in  the 
dominant  religious  life    of  America  than  in  any 


244    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

other  land  perhaps.  This  nation  was  founded  on 
faith  in  certain  great  religious  principles.  Its  in- 
stitutions have  grown  up  under  their  nurture,  and 
it  has  received  its  distinctive  marks  from  these  be- 
liefs. Evangelical  religion  has  done  more  for 
American  education,  general  intelligence,  social 
pmnty  and  political  democracy  than  all  other  forces 
besides  which  have  operated  to  make  the  nation. 
If  we  suffer  to  wane  the  evangelical  faith  which 
has  created  our  institutions,  where  shall  we  find 
that  which  is  powerful  enough  to  produce  another 
order  as  superior  to  the  present  as  this  is  to  that 
past  out  of  which  evangelical  faith  made  it? 
Evangelical  religion  has  wrought  here  with  a  freer 
hand  and  demonstrated  its  power  and  value  as  no- 
where else  in  all  the  world  and  in  the  whole  course 
of  time.  The  experiment  is  a  vindication  and  a 
demonstration.  It  is  also  an  argument  and  con- 
tains a  lesson. 

It  is  in  America  that  evangelical  religion  has  had 
its  best  chance  and  in  America  will  as  certainly  be 
determined  its  destiny.  The  English-speaking  race 
has  been  the  beneficiary,  and  is  now  the  guardian 
of  this  distinctive  type  of  Christianity  which  these 
doctrines  of  Christianity  have  created  when  held  in 
comparatively  unobscured,  unencumbered  purity. 
There  is  no  greater  task  before  Christianity  to-day 
than  that  of  fixing  the  roots  of  these  great  doctrines 
fast  in  the  soil  of  America  and  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  and  thereby  establishing  evangelical  Chris- 
tianity, which  alone  can  regenerate  a  lost  world. 


Conclusions  245 

If  these  truths  are  uprooted  here,  we  will  never 
save  enough  of  vital  Christianity  for  adequate 
transplanting  on  the  great  continents.  If  we  save 
the  world,  we  must  have  something  with  which  to 
save  it.  The  heathen  world  cannot  be  saved  if  Ave 
do  not  save  these  doctrines  ;  and  the  only  reasonable 
hope  we  have  of  saving  them  is  m  America.  There 
is  not  now  in  any  land  of  the  globe  a  supply  ade- 
quate to  the  transportation  demands  of  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  In  every  other  part  of  the 
world  either  they  have  never  conquered,  or  recent 
battles  have  reversed  their  victories  and  the  relig- 
ious life  for  which  they  stand  has  been  mutilated. 
The  problem  of  problems  in  propagating  apostolic 
Christianity  to-day  is  such  a  safe-keeping  of  these 
great  principles  and  such  a  campaign  for  them  as 
to    give    them    a  complete   and   final   victory  in 

America. 

The  world's  supply  of  sa\dng  doctrine,  as  of  men, 
and  of  material  support  for  the  missionary  enter- 
prise, must  come  mainly  from  America.  If  the 
supply  fails,  whole  nations  will  remain  destitute  of 
the  saving  gospel.  In  the  message  sent  from  every 
other  land,  the  hierarchical  and  ecclesiastical  note 
sounds  so  loud,  and  ceremonialism  so  muffles  the 
voice  of  the  evangel  that  it  is  scarcely  heard.  The 
spectacular  takes  the  place  of  the  oracular.  Some 
have  gone  forth  ui  the  name  of  missionary,  never 
having  caught  the  tune  of  the  gospel  acclaim  at  all. 
They  do  not  know  the  scale  of  the  inspired  nota- 
tion, and  they  have  never  gotten  the  key  of  the 


246    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

cross  in  their  message.  The  reasonable  hope  for 
evangelical  religion  in  the  Avorld  is  the  preservation 
and  the  planting  of  evangelical  truth  in  America. 
The  supreme  ambition  of  Koman  Catholicism  is  the 
conquest  of  America.  Kome  has  never  had  an 
Anglo-Saxon  nation  as  an  asset  and  an  ally.  Her 
hope  was  deferred  by  her  defeat  in  England  in  the 
tune  of  Henry  the  Eighth.  She  now  looks  with 
covetous  eye  on  America.  There  is  no  agent  or 
instrument  that  she  is  not  ready  to  use.  Poli- 
ticians, the  secular  press,  federal  patronage  as  well 
as  her  own  powerful  ecclesiastical  organization  have 
all  been  used.  All  the  Protestant  denominations 
combined  do  not  maintain  so  watchful  an  oversight 
of  legislative  affairs  at  Washington  as  does  this 
hierarchy.  And  that  Rome  is  succeeding  in 
America,  the  facts  plainly  declare.  She  has  in  ten 
years  added  to  her  membership  in  America  more 
communicants  than  all  Protestant  Christianity  has 
evangelized  in  Roman  Catholic  territory  in  the 
whole  century  of  modern  missions.  Let  this  go  on 
and  give  Rome  this  Anglo-American  nation,  and 
evangelical  Christianity  is  forever  doomed. 

It  is  no  premature  alarm  which  calls  for  the 
guards  to  be  on  duty  in  America.  "  Is  there  no 
paganism  threatening  America  ?  "  asks  Dr.  Forsyth. 
Yes,  verily,  and  very  much ;  and  worse  than 
paganism ;  and  the  forces  which  militate  against 
evangelicalism  have  greatly  multiplied  in  our 
land  and  have  altogether  lost  their  timidity.  The 
truth  is,  orthodoxy  is  verily  beset  by  a  bandit  mob 


Conclusions  247 

the  like  of  which  was  never  seen.  The  freedom  of 
the  press  and  the  liberty  of  conscience,  won  by 
evangelical  Christianity,  has  for  the  time  being 
added  fury  to  the  assault.  Under  the  protection 
which  Christianity  has  secured,  magazines,  popular 
fiction  and  daily  newspapers,  and  even  theological 
and  scientific  "  chairs  "  founded  by  Christian  benev- 
olence, are  used  as  batteries  from  which  editors, 
authors,  contributors,  a  heterogeneous  insurgency, 
pour  their  fusillade  into  the  ranks  of  orthodoxy 
with  the  hope  of  bringing  down  the  colours  of 
essential  and  historic  Christianity.  The  passion  for 
novelty  and  fame  makes  them  blind  to  the  most 
sacred  interests  of  the  soul  and  to  the  plainest 
lessons  of  history.  Despising  the  authority  of  the 
Bible  and  the  wisdom  of  prophets  and  seers,  the 
writers  of  dime  novels,  often  untaught  in  the 
rudiments  of  theology  or  morals,  turn  their  imagin- 
ings into  text-books  on  matters  of  divinity  and  the 
soul.  NoAv  and  then  a  pulpiteer,  with  the  Bible  as 
a  breastwork,  suddenly  turns  loose  a  broadside  upon 
an  unsuspecting  congregation  and  goes  over  to  the 
insurgents.  Even  street  corners  are  often  con- 
gested with  those  who  wait  on  the  wisdom  of  some 
dispenser  of  a  new  ism  and  drink  down  some 
reHgious  cure-all.  The  pamphleteer  is  in  the  land 
and  literature  is  without  money  and  "without  price. 
The  female  theologue,  and  the  "  holy  roller  "  swell 
the  ranlis  to  carry  the  war  into  the  wilderness.  To 
this  insurgent  army  is  added  a  million  a  year  of 
immigrants  among  whom  is  great  need,  but  among 


248    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

whom  also  are  many  malcontents,  dangerous  and 
evil  persons.  In  the  face  of  all  this,  there  are 
among  us  those  neutral  spirits  who  counsel  the 
ministry  to  be  "  liberal "  and  "  broad,"  which 
means  throw  open  the  door  to  everything  new 
whether  false  or  true  and  reject  on  the  presentation 
of  its  card  all  venerable  doctrine  which  seeks 
admittance  to  your  hospitality.  "  Well,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  liberalism  has  tended  to  destroy  positive 
belief,  distinctive  exj)erience  and  aggressive  Chris- 
tianity." ' 

Much  of  this  we  have  not  taken  seriously  and 
much  of  the  attention  given  it  has  been  with  false 
tactics  and  poor  generalship.  Meanwhile,  the 
untutored  multitudes,  among  whom  are  many  of 
the  brightest  and  most  capacious  youth  of  the  land, 
are  unable  to  discern  between  truth  and  sophistry, 
between  Christian  doctrine  and  philosophical  specu- 
lation. Continued  neglect  of  instruction  in  Chris- 
tian essentials  will  soon  carry  the  battle  against  us. 
These  multitudes  must  be  enlisted  and  all  our  forces 
drilled  in  fundamental  truth  if  the  friends  of 
evangelical  Christianity  do  not  wish  to  witness  a 
dismal  failure  and  see  the  gospel  defeated  ui  its 
world-campaign. 

We  must  save  these  truths,  for  it  is  with  them 
that  we  can  save  the  world,  and  their  destiny  is 
emphatically  bound  up  with  the  issues  which  face 
the    Christian   people  of    America.     The   foreign 

'  **  Positive  Preaching  aud  the  Modern  Mind,'*  by  Dr.  Forsyth, 
p.  209. 


Conclusions  249 

missionary  enterprise  is  already  dependent  upon 
American  resoui'ces,  of  men  and  money  and  gospel 
for  its  success.  "  Six  out  of  seven  of  Christen- 
dom's missionaries  come  from  the  United  States  of 
America.'"  "Eighty-five  dollars  of  every  one 
hundred  dollars  put  into  missionary  enterprise  are 
contributed  by  English  speaking  Christians."  ^  JSTo 
other  class  of  missionaries  carry  these  fundamental 
truths  so  to  the  front  as  do  our  own  men  and 
v^omen.  The  insistent  demand  of  those  who  are 
conducting  the  foreign  missionary  enterprise  is  for 
an  increased  supply  of  men  and  women,  and  to 
this  should  be  added  a  perfect  quality  and  a  full 
quantity  of  the  gospel,  l^eglect  of  the  home 
missionary  industry  will  shortly  bring  to  a  stand- 
still and  doom  to  inevitable  failure  the  whole 
foreign  missionary  enterprise.  Home  missions 
manifestly  grow  in  importance  with  a  growing 
sense  of  the  magnitude  and  necessity  for  foreign 
operations,  and  must  grow  in  corresponding  in- 
tensity and  comprehensiveness.  We  must  improve 
the  quality  and  increase  the  store  of  American 
Christianity  and  provide  more  adequate  facilities 
for  its  transport  or  we  can  never  do  great  things  in 
American  Christianity  on  the  foreign  market.  I 
mean,  we  must  have  a  finer  t3rpe  of  Christianity  at 
home,  not  in  exceptional  examples,  but  in  average 
professors,  and  we  must  have  more  of  these  made 

^  Jevons,  "  Introd  notion  to  a  Study  of  Comparative  Religions," 
p.  265. 
'  J.  Campbell  White. 


250    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

out  of  the  fifty  millions  of  our  unsaved  population, 
which,  as  the  case  now  stands,  are  an  unavail- 
able supply,  and  we  must  convert  a  larger  share  of 
American  fortunes  to  Christ  in  order  to  have 
adequate  means  to  finance  the  world-campaign. 

It  is  conceded  on  all  hands  that  the  dominant 
rehgious  body  m  England  to-day  is  steadily  tending 
back  to  Kome  and  thereby  sadly  weakening  the 
evangelican  and  Anglo-Saxon  protest  and  missionary 
advance.  The  lapse  of  Protestantism  in  England 
is  a  call  for  an  evangelican  revival  in  America. 

On  the  other  hand  who  can  estimate,  or  over- 
estimate, the  missionary  value  of  one  solidly  Chris- 
tian nation?  What  a  commendation  of  these 
great  doctrines  abroad  would  be  the  fact  that  they 
had  been  accepted  and  demonstrated  at  home ! 
Evangelical  Christianity  has  never  had  the  support 
and  endorsement  of  a  single  nation  to  strengthen 
its  missionary  effort  abroad.  And  yet  the  mission- 
ary purpose  and  program  of  the  Father  are  that 
nations  as  well  as  individuals  shall  be  given  to  the 
Son.  "  Behold,  thou  shalt  call  a  nation,  that  thou 
knowest  not ;  and  a  nation  that  knew  not  thee 
shall  run  unto  thee,  because  of  Jehovah  thy  God, 
and  for  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  "  (Isa.  Iv.  5).  Turn 
this  nation  thoroughly  to  Christ  and  soon  "all 
nations  shall  call  Him  happy"  (Psa.  Ixxii.  lY). 
The  true  "uplift  of  China,"  and  of  Africa  also, 
would  come  if  American  missionaries  could  point 
to  their  home  land  as  an  example  of  a  nation 
which  had  accepted  and  proved  the  gospel.     Char- 


Conclusions  251 

acter  speaks  louder  than  words,  and  the  unchris- 
tian character  of  so-called  Christian  America  is  the 
standing  reproach  which  the  foreign  missionary 
must  face.  The  ungodliness  in  America  and  of 
Americans  abroad,  and  the  census  reports  that 
two-thirds  of  the  responsible  citizens  of  America 
have  not  accepted  the  evangelical  gospel  which 
we  offer  other  nations  is  the  unanswerable  argu- 
ment put  up  to  the  foreign  missionary  by  the 
intelligent  heathen  he  would  convert. 

That  is  the  home  mission  problem.  It  lays 
equal  emphasis  upon  the  business  of  the  home  mis- 
sionary, the  state  missionary,  the  home  pastor  and 
the  private  domestic  Christian.  All  these  must 
work  out  the  task  of  making  the  highest  and 
holiest  type  of  Christian  character,  multiplying 
believers  and  deepening  in  Christians  at  home  a 
sense  of  Christ's  lordship  over  their  material 
possessions.  No  man  can  magnify  his  office  in  any 
sphere  of  labour  on  this  home  field  and  minify  any 
other  department  of  it.  Ko  pastor  can  find  great 
enthusiasm  or  justification  for  his  work  or  any 
other  home  work  while  he  is  indifferent  to  home 
missions,  and  no  foreign  missionary  worker  or 
agent  can  have  high  hopes  of  his  enterprise  who 
looks  with  composure  upon  the  work  of  the  home 
pastor  and  the  home  missionary.  Of  course,  it  is 
equally  true  that  the  home  missionary  and  the 
home  pastor  who  fails  to  see  the  relation  of  his 
domestic  work  to  the  remotest  missionary  opera- 
tions   cannot  enjoy  the  fullest  inspiration  in  the 


252    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

work  at  home.  Each  needs  the  other's  vision  to 
make  his  own  perfect  and  his  heart  strong  for  his 
task. 

We  often  hear  it  stated  that  great  changes  are 
taking  place  in  China,  that  China  is  awaking  and 
becoming  a  mighty  power,  and,  therefore,  we 
should  speedily  evangelize  China.  This  is  true, 
without  doubt  it  is  true,  and  the  conclusion  is 
sound  and  reasonable.  But,  if  China  is  awaking, 
America  is  awake ;  if  China  is  becoming,  America 
has  become.  More  marvellous  and  significant 
changes  have  taken  place  in  America  in  recent 
times  than  in  any  land  on  the  globe.  It  will  be 
many  a  decade  before  China  will  reach  a  point  of 
development  already  attained  by  America  and 
have  the  present  influence  of  America  in  the 
councils  of  nations.  And  it  must  be  remembered 
that  if  China  is  awaking,  it  is  America,  more  than 
any  other  country,  that  is  awaking  her.  China 
has  felt  the  electric  thrill  of  American  commerce, 
education  and  militarism  and  is  sitting  up  in  wild- 
eyed  wonder.  America  is  penetrating  other  lands 
with  a  conspicuousness  and  recognized  influence 
which  scarcely  any  other  nation  approaches.  And 
every  American  abroad  is  a  help  or  hindrance  to 
gospel  evangelization  in  the  land  of  his  adoption 
or  his  itinerary.  We  speak  loudly  through  the 
character  of  our  wealthy  tourists,  our  commerical 
agents  and  the  representatives  of  our  marvellous 
industrial  and  commercial  enterprises  which  girt 
the  globe ;  through  our  marine,  our  international 


Conclusions  253 

relationships,  our  diplomats,  our  scholars,  our 
literature  and  the  quality  of  our  exports.  All 
these  voices  either  confirm  or  contradict  the  mis- 
sionary message,  either  strengthen  the  missionary's 
testimony  or  shame  and  defeat  him  at  his  lonely 
post  of  duty. 

America  controls  more  of  the  modern  imple- 
ments for  advancing  civilization  than  any  nation 
on  the  globe.  Her  civil  and  educational  institu- 
tions shine  with  the  brilliancy  of  modern  progress. 
Her  utilitarian  sciences  and  material  resources  give 
her  a  competitive  advantage.  Moreover  by  racial 
instinct  and  democratic  training  we  develop  pio- 
neersmen  who  more  than  any  people  living  can  and 
will  carry  forth  and  use  these  implements.  Mat- 
thew Arnold  studied  American  potentialities  and 
declared,  "  America  holds  the  future."  The  pene- 
trating Alexander  Hamilton  said  while  the  nation 
was  yet  in  its  cradle,  "It  is  ours  either  to  be  a  grave 
in  which  the  hopes  of  the  world  shall  be  entombed 
or  the  pillar  of  cloud  to  pilot  the  world  forward." 

America  is  a  nation  in  its  youth.  ]^ations,  like 
individuals,  must  be  converted  young  or  may  not 
be  converted  at  all,  certainly  not  without  great 
difficulty.  If  converted  in  youth,  they  bring  to 
the  cause  of  religion  maturing  powers  far  ampler 
than  those  which  belong  to  age.  To  save  America 
is  to  give  Christianity  as  an  asset  its  buoyancy, 
vigour,  power  of  initiation,  its  pioneering  spirit, 
courage  and  strength.  There  is  no  other  such  na- 
tional prize  to  take  for  Christ. 


254    The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

But  tills  nation  is  also  beset  by  the  sins  of  youth, 
and,  therefore,  peculiarly  in  need  of  the  help  of  the 
gospel.  Self-importance,  precipitancy  and  zest  for 
experimentation,  a  desire  for  a  knowledge  of  the 
ways  of  the  world,  and  a  surplus  energy,  are  the 
sins  and  snares  of  this  young  Republic.  Growing 
wealth,  Avith  its  allurements  for  the  young,  oppor- 
tunity for  self -gratification,  occasion  for  self-gratu- 
lation  add  to  the  problem  and  emphasize  the  need 
of  saving  America.  All  these  weaknesses  signify 
corresponding  powers  which  may  be  used  in  con- 
quering the  world  for  our  King.  But  what  will  save 
this  young  nation  and  put  all  its  possibilities  and 
powers  into  the  missionary  enterprise  ?  Nothing, 
absolutely  nothing,  but  that  which  alone  is  capable 
of  saving  it  from  its  roots,  namely  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  Youth  was  never  saved  by  maxims,  ad- 
monitions and  legislative  restraints.  Something 
must  get  hold  of  it  to  save  it,  something  which  has 
power  to  generate  impulses,  a  subtle  force  that 
takes  the  heart  captive  and  holds  it  by  the  cords  of 
its  romantic,  impulsive  soul.  Only  He  who  can 
call  forth  love  and  answer  the  love  He  has  called 
forth  with  a  plenitude  of  love,  can  redeem  and 
transform  this  youthful  America  and  fix  its  life  and 
habits  for  ripe  and  fruitful  national  maturity.  We 
shall  never  overstate  the  importance  of  a  fact  and 
a  work  like  this.  This  regenerating,  transforming, 
renewing  gospel  we  have  tried  to  exalt  must,  we 
repeat,  be  saved  in  and  must  save  America. 

History   should   be  our  teacher.     A  failure  to 


Conclusions  255 

keep  Christianity  evangelical  on  the  fields  of  its 
conquests  has  cost  Christianity  more  millions  of  al- 
lies than  it  has  subsequently  evangelized  among  the 
heathen  nations.  The  loss  has  been  total  in  some 
lands  and  still  goes  on  in  many  quarters.  The 
weeds  of  heresy  spring  up  in  the  furrows  of  the 
gospel  plow  and  many  an  acre,  once  beautiful 
and  fragrant  witk  Christian  institutions,  is  now  dis- 
figured and  noxious  with  rank  heresies.  If  evan- 
gelical Christianity  had  held  all  that  it  has  ever 
taken,  we  would  now  be  drawing  in  our  line  for  a 
final  consummation  of  our  campaign,  and  we  would 
have  back  of  advancing  Christianity  resources  of 
men  and  money  suificient  to  supply  every  need  of 
the  campaign.  If  we  had  held  our  own,  we  could 
now  send  to  the  front  as  many  missionaries  from 
Italy  as  we  receive  immigrants  and  of  a  vastly  su- 
perior type,  because  of  their  improvement  by  tutor- 
ing in  evangelical  faith  instead  of  Romish  error. 
Those  who  might  have  been  missionary  forces  are 
a  thorny  mission  field  because  we  lost  what  we 
early  won.  The  tendency  to  overgrow  and  supplant 
evangelical  Christianity  still  goes  on  and  is  in  proc- 
ess in  every  city  and  vast  sections  of  our  country. 
ISTew  England  and  New  York  need  a  thousand  mis- 
sionaries for  the  hard  and  long  fight  to  recover 
what  evangelical  religion  has  lost  in  that  part  of 
America.  While  we  have  slept  an  enemy  has  sown 
tares  where  gospel  plowmen  once  subsoiled  and 
sowed  the  precious  grain  of  gospel  truth,  and  lo ! 
the  tares  choke  the  wheat  and  shorten  the  harvest. 


256     The  Unique  Message  of  Christianity 

The  Christian  history  of  Asia  and  Europe  is  al- 
ready being  repeated  with  variations  in  our  own 
land,  while  the  yet  unevangelized  nations  of  the 
earth  wait  for  the  gospel  which  a  triumphant 
evangelical  Christianity  in  America  alone  can 
supply. 


Princeton  Theological  Seminat7  Libraries 


1    1012  01234  3663 


Date  Due 


MIH 


lill 


"miil 


t 


,|     I  Mliiiii: 

'•111  1  ,     y 

'.-     ■  111    liitiiiiiiiiiiiiii: 


iiir  III 


I  iW'""'"^ 

miliMHiiMiHM  1 


I  Hi  il{tl!l!lH!i!i  !i 


^iiiiWiiitlliiHliiiiliiii 


■:  mm 


\mm 


illliii!ll!ill!tt!!i|iii!!!i 


iiiii; 


